ecastor; verbal endings, as eris, eget, sit, det, fuat, velit.

9. Synizesis. Deus, meus, tuos, suos (nom.), eius, ei, eum, quoius, quoi, huius, huic, rei, etc., may be monosyllables; deorum, meorum, duorum, fuisti, etc., may be dissyllables; diutius, exeundum, etc., may be trisyllables. Other examples are proin, proinde, praeoptare, dehortor, aibam, quator.

10. Hiatus. This occurs, though not frequently, (a) at the natural division of the metre. Menaech. 219,

‘Spórtulam cape átque argentum. | éccos treis nummós habes.’

(b) At the natural break in the sense, especially with change of speakers. Trin. 432,

PH. ‘Tempúst adeundi.’ LE. ‘Éstne hic Philto qui ádvenit?’

The hiatus is commonest in monosyllabic words, or words ending in a short syllable followed by m, making the first syllable of an arsis resolved into two shorts. Trin. 433,

‘Is hérclest ipsus. Édepol ne ego istúm velim’;

Trin. 305,

‘Quí homo cum animo inde áb ineunte aetáte depugnát suo.’

Views on Plautus.—For Cicero’s high opinion of Plautus cf. de Off. i. 104, ‘Duplex omnino est iocandi genus: unum inliberale petulans, flagitiosum obscaenum, alterum elegans urbanum, ingeniosum facetum. Quo genere non modo Plautus noster et Atticorum antiqua comoedia, sed etiam philosophorum Socraticorum libri referti sunt.’

Horace’s unfavourable judgment is well known.