B. Bacchic Rhythms. The bacchius, like the cretic, consists of five times, which are in the relation of 3:2. The subordinate relation of the principal arsis is iambic, rising therefore, while the principal relation is falling, and in this contrast lies the arrhythmy of the bacchius:

a:3=t:

The following forms, therefore, are possible : wwwww u

vuu- u-vv. In the closing foot a short may stand for the last long.

The Greeks rejected altogether, with the exception of a few passages in tragedy, the bacchic rhythm on account of its arrhythmy. Wherever it does occur, it is for the most part apparently only, as Pind. Olymp. I. Epod. 4, which verse is not to be measured :

Ο ταύρος δ' έoικεν κυρίξειν τιν' αρχάν,

Φθάσαντος δ' επ' έργοις προπηδήσεται νιν. Similar is the verse in Aesch. Prom. 115.

Τίς αχώ, τίς οδμα προς έπτα μ' άφεγγής και Aesch. Eum. 789.

Etavácw; ti gezw; yév@udi; dúcoloTQ. and the verse in Dion. Hal. de Comp. p. 132.

Tív dxtdv, zív ülev docuw ; noī nopev]; The Romans made frequent use of the bacchius, both in tragedy and comedy. It supplies in some degree the place of the dochmius, which it resembles very much on account of its disharmonic character, with this difference, that although the dochmius is arrhythmic in its composition, it is altogether eurhythmic in its parts, while the bacchius is wholly arrhythmic. Thus it serves in tragedy, as the dochmius with the Greeks, for the expression of the highest passion, despair and grief, and in comedy it indicates, in a comical manner, sadness, haste, confusion. It occurs, however, in cantica alone, never in the dialogue.

The poets have taken many liberties in the treatment of the bacchius. The arses are frequently resolved, and, thereby, the violent character of the rhythm is even heightened. The short is middle timed; it can, therefore, be changed into a long, and this again, according to the license of the older Roman poets, be resolved into two shorts. Thus, the following form arises :

Plautus sometimes treats the verse as asynartete. Bacchic verses, moreover, delight in diaereses. The tetrameter has usually a principal diaeresis, which, however, is frequently neglected. The catalexis is in disyllabum only.

The following measures are in use:

(1) The Dipody or the Dimeter.—Dimeter bacchiacus.

The acatalectic dimeter appears sometimes to be repeated by systems; but it commonly occurs intermingled with tetrameters, as Plaut. Capt. III. 2, 6. Rud. I. 5, 6.

Lassúm reddidérunt.

Puéllae sed únde. The catalectic resembles the dochmius. It occurs singly among tetrameters and other rhythms, as Plaut. Capt. III. 3; I. 9, 10 (according to Hermann's emendation).

Quid ést suaviús.
Mihí syngraphum,
Datúr mi, illicó.

(2) The Tretrapody or the Tetrameter.-Tetrameter bac

chiacus.

v--u--u--v- catalecticus. The former occurs very frequently, partly repeated several times, as Ennius Hect. Lustr.

Quid hóc hic clamoris? quid hóc hic tumulti est?

Nomén qui usurpát meum ? quid in castris strépiti est? partly singly among cretic, iambic, trochaic and anapaestic rhythms.

The catalectic occurs in Plautus joined with the acatalectic in distichs, Menaechm. V. 6.

Spectámen bonó servo id ést, qui rem herilem

Procúrat, vidét, collocát, cogitat,
Ut ábsente heró suo rem heri diligenter

Tutétur, quam si ipse assit, aut rectius.
Tergúm, quam gulám, crura, quam ventrem, opórtet

Potiora esse, quoi cor modeste sitúmst.

CHAPTER IV.

RHYTHMS THE GROUND FOOT OF Which is six-TIMED. THE

CHORIAMBIC-IONIC KIND.

A. Falling Rhythms.

(a) Choriambs. The choriamb consists of six times, of which three are in the arsis, and three in the thesis. The subordinate relation in the thesis is rising, and contrasts, therefore, with the principal relation (P. 1. ch. 3. p. 13).

a:3=t:3

a:2=t:1t:1=a:2 The arrhythmy which hence arises is softened by transforming the choriamb either in a dimeter dactyl. cat. in syllab. or by substituting, according to a peculiar license, the iambic dipody (P. I. ch. 10. p. 37).

The form -vw- is unquestionably choriambic when the iambic dipody corresponds to it as antistrophe, but dactylic when the single choriambs are strictly separated by the diaeresis. Thus Horace, who had the nicest sense for rhythmical harmony, separates almost always by the diaeresis the single choriambs in the asclepiadean verses, so called :

---UU-I UU-I-UULU

Nullam, Vare, sacra vite prius severis arborem. to indicate thereby that he took them as dactylic and supplied after each choriamb a pause of two shorts; but Alcaeus and Catullus seem to have measured these originally choriambic verses by choriambs, because with them the diaeresis after the choriambs is not essential.

The character of the choriamb is different according as