‘Quid ais? perpetuen valuisti?—Varie.’
From slave life come also terms of abuse like volturius, scelus, odium populi, mers mala, lapis, saxum. Note that cruelty in the treatment of slaves is peculiarly Roman; but their familiarity with their masters and their general situation are from Greek life.
Prosody.[12]—Plautine prosody, which reflected the variation of quantity found in the popular speech, was not properly understood even in Cicero’s time.
Cf. Cic. Or. 184, ‘Comicorum senarii propter similitudinem sermonis sic saepe sunt abiecti ut non numquam vix in eis numerus et versus intellegi possit.’
The chief points are as follows:
1. Final -s is often lost. Rud. 103,
‘Patér, salveto, ambóque adeo. Et tu sálvŏs sis’;
Most. 1124,
‘Quóque modo dominum ádvenientem sérvos ludificátŭs sit.’
2. A mute followed by a liquid does not make the preceding vowel long. Thus agris, libros, duplex, are iambi.