Tempe quae silvae cingunt super inpendentes,—
planted before the vestibule of the palace.
The diction and rhythm of the poem are characterised by excellences of a quite different sort from those of his other pieces. Both produce the impression of very careful study and labour. In no previous work of Latin genius was so much use made of an artificial poetical diction. Though this diction has not the naïveté or charm of his simpler pieces, yet it is very effective in its own way. It reveals new and unsuspected wealth in the ore of the Latin language. The old rhetorical artifices of alliteration, assonance, &c. are used more sparingly than in Lucretius, yet they do appear, as in the lines—
Peliaco quondam prognatae vertice pinus,—
Aut tereti tenues tinnitus aere ciebant,—
Putridaque infirmis variabant pectora palmis,—etc., etc.
As in the Attis we find such word-formations as sonipedibus, silvicultrix, nemorivagus, so in this poem we have fluentisono, raucisonos, clarisona, flexamino, etc. We recognise his old partiality for diminutives, as in the
Frigidulos udo singultus ore cientem,
and