óbstipuit, | péctore cōn|sístere nīl # cōnsi|lī́ quit,
there are three choriambic trimeters, the first two with iambic close, the third with trochaic. In the second line there is syllaba anceps at the end of the second choriambus. In Plautus, Casina 629, Menaechmi 110, and perhaps Asinaria 133, we have a choriambic dimeter + an acatalectic trochaic dipody.
Owing to the frequent occurrence of the apparent choriambus in certain kinds of logaoedic verse, the metricians of Horace’s day regarded them as really choriambic. Hence the rule mentioned in 2652, a rule unknown to Greek writers of logaoedic verse.
[IONIC RHYTHMS.]
[2708.] In these, the fundamental foot is the Ionic, of which there are two forms, the Ionic ā māiōre –́ –̇ ⏑ ⏑, so called because it begins with the greater part (i.e. the thesis) of the foot, and the Ionic ā minōre ⏑ ⏑ –́ –̇, which receives its name from the fact that it begins with the less important part of the foot (i.e. the arsis).
[2709.] (1.) Ionics ā minōre are often treated as Ionics ā māiōre with anacrusis, ⏖ | –́ –̇ ⏖, &c. See [2529] ad fin.
[2710.] (2.) Ionic verse shows numerous resolutions and irrational longs, especially in early Latin. The accumulation of short syllables imparts to the verse a wild and passionate character.
[2711.] (3.) Anaclăsis (Gr. ανακλασις, “a bending back”) is an exchange of place between a short syllable and the preceding long (e.g. –́ ⏑ –̇ ⏑ for –́ –̇ ⏑ ⏑ or ⏑ ⏑ –́ ⏑ | –̇ ⏑ –́ –̇ for ⏑ ⏑ –́ –̇ | ⏑ ⏑ –́ –̇), and is very frequent in Ionic verse.
The Ionic ā māiōre Tetrameter Catalectic (or Sotadean).
[2712.] This verse consists of four Ionic ā māiōre feet, the last foot being incomplete. In the early Latin poets, beginning with Ennius, the Sotadean is treated with much freedom: resolution, contraction ([2518]), anaclasis ([2711]), and irrational longs are freely admitted. Examples are:—