[3] Carm. LXXXIV.
'Chommoda' dicebat, si quando 'commoda' vellet
Dicere et 'insidias' Arrius 'hinsidias'.
Et tum mirifice sperabat se esse locutum,
Cum, quantum poterat, dixerat 'hinsidias'.
* * * * * *
Hoc misso in Syriam, requierant omnibus aures,
Audibant eadem haec leniter et leviter.
Nec sibi postilla metuebant talia verba;
Cum subito adfertur nuntius horribilis:
Ionios fluctus, postquam illuc Arrius isset,
Iam non 'Ionios' esse sed 'Hionios'!
Which Martin has very cleverly translated:
"Whenever Arrius wished to name
'Commodious,' out 'chommodious' came:
And when of his intrigues he blabbed,
With his 'hintrigues' our ears he stabbed;
And thought moreover, he displayed
A rare refinement when he made
His h's thus at random fall
With emphasis most guttural.
When suddenly came news one day
Which smote the city with dismay,
That the Ionian seas a change
Had undergone, most sad and strange;
For since by Arrius crossed, the wild
'Hionian Hocean' they were styled!"
[4] Gellius (II. 3) gives a number of words formerly written with h but in his time no longer aspirated. Between two vowels, h was silent. Hence nil for nihil, etc.
[5] Quint, ix. 4, 40; Prise. 1, p. 29 (Keil).
[6] Velius Lougus, p. 80 (Keil).
[7] Don. in Serv. p. 445.
[8] Cf. for instance Quint. 1, 7, 26; Marius Victorinus, p. 13 (Keil); Velius Longus, pp. 50, 58, 67 (Keil); Consentius, p. 395 (Keil). The position of the vocal organs in pronouncing v is described by Terentianus Maurus, p. 319 (Keil); Marius Victorinus, p. 33 (Keil); and Martianus Capella, III. 261.
[9] Cf. Horace, Odes, I. 23, 4.