As the editor remarks later, “metrum nec in se perfectum,” etc. See also Porson’s note on the same passage of the Hecuba.—For a Latin spondaic line cp. Ennius “olli respondit rex Albai longai” (Annal. Reliq. i. 31 Vahlen).
7. The iambus and the trochee abound in ordinary speech, and must therefore be used in oratory with moderation: cp. Cic. de Oratore iii. 47 “nam cum sint numeri plures, iambum et trochaeum frequentem segregat ab oratore Aristoteles, Catule, vester, qui natura tamen incurrunt ipsi in orationem sermonemque nostrum; sed sunt insignes percussiones eorum numerorum et minuti pedes”; Orator 56. 189 “versus saepe in oratione per imprudentiam dicimus; quod vehementer est vitiosum, sed non attendimus neque exaudimus nosmet ipsos; senarios vero et Hipponacteos effugere vix possumus; magnam enim partem ex iambis nostra constat oratio”; Aristot. Rhet. iii. 8. 4 ὁ δ’ ἴαμβος αὐτή ἐστιν ἡ λέξις ἡ τῶν πολλῶν· διὸ μάλιστα πάντων τῶν μέτρων ἰαμβεῖα φθέγγονται λέγοντες: Poet. iv. 14 μάλιστα γὰρ λεκτικὸν τῶν μέτρων τὸ ἰαμβεῖόν ἐστιν· σημεῖον δὲ τούτου· πλεῖστα γὰρ ἰαμβεῖα λέγομεν ἐν τῇ διαλέκτῳ τῇ πρὸς ἀλλήλους, ἑξάμετρα δὲ ὀλιγάκις καὶ ἐκβαίνοντες τῆς λεκτικῆς ἁρμονίας: Demetr. de Eloc. § 43 ὁ δὲ ἴαμβος εὐτελὴς καὶ τῇ τῶν πολλῶν λέξει ὅμοιος. πολλοὶ γοῦν μέτρα ἰαμβικὰ λαλοῦσιν οὐκ εἰδότες.
9. Cp. Aristot. Rhet. iii. 8 ὁ δὲ τροχαῖος κορδακικώτερος· δηλοῖ δὲ τὰ τετράμετρα· ἔστι γὰρ ῥυθμὸς τροχαῖος τὰ τετράμετρα.
11. As in Hor. Epod. ii. 1 “Beatus ille, qui procul negotiis.”
13. This line of Archilochus is preserved (together with the six that follow it) in Stobaeus Florileg. i. 207 (Meineke). For a similar Latin trochaic verse see Marius Victorinus i. 12 “Roma, Roma cerne, quanta sit Deum benignitas.”
18. For the effect of tribrachs in Latin cp. Marius Victorinus i. 12 “nemus ave reticuit, ager homine sonat.”
20. καὶ ἀγεννής: these words are absent from P; perhaps rightly. They do not sort well with καὶ οὐδὲν ... γενναῖον.
αὐτοῦ γένοιτο γενναῖον. ὁ δ’ ἐξ ἁπασῶν μακρῶν, μολοττὸν δ’
αὐτὸν οἱ μετρικοὶ καλοῦσιν, ὑψηλός τε καὶ ἀξιωματικός ἐστι
καὶ διαβεβηκὼς ἐπὶ πολύ· παράδειγμα δὲ αὐτοῦ τοιόνδε