§9.4.74etsi vereor, iudices, et animadverti, iudices.
Even as "etsi vereor, iudices" and "animadverti, iudices" [are examples].
sed initia initiis non convenient, ut T. Livius hexametri exordio coepit: facturusne operae pretium sim (nam ita edidit, estque melius, quam quo modo emendatur), §9.4.75nec clausulae clausulis, ut Cicero, quo me vertam, nescio, qui trimetri finis est.
But beginnings will not suit beginnings, as Titus Livius began with the opening of a hexameter: "facturusne operae pretium sim" (for so he published it, and it is better than the way it is emended), nor conclusions to conclusions, as Cicero's "quo me vertam, nescio", which is the end of a trimeter.
trimetrum et senarium promiscue dicere licet, sex enim pedes, tres percussiones habet.
One may use "trimeter" and "senarius" interchangeably, for it has six feet, three beats.
peius cludit finis hexametri, ut Brutus ut epistolis: neque illi malunt habere tutores aut defensores, quoniam causam sciunt placuisse Catoni. §9.4.76illi minus sunt notabiles, quia hoc genus sermoni proximum est.
The end of a hexameter closes still worse, as Brutus in his letters: "neque illi malunt habere tutores aut defensores, quoniam causam sciunt placuisse Catoni." Those are less noticeable, because this genre is closest to speech.
itaque et versus hi fere excidunt, quos Brutus ipso componendi durius studio saepissime facit, non raro Asinius, sed etiam Cicero nonnunquam, ut ut principio statim orationis ut Lucium Pisonem: pro di immortales, qui hic nunc illuxit dies? §9.4.77non minore autem cura vitandum est quidquid est ἔνρυθμον, quale apud Sallustium, falso queritur de natura sua. quamvis enim vincta sit, tamen soluta videri debet oratio.
And so these verses often escape, which Brutus, by his very zeal for a harsher style of composition, very frequently makes, Asinius not infrequently, but also Cicero sometimes, as at the very beginning of his speech "Against Lucius Piso": "pro di immortales, qui hic nunc illuxit dies?" But with no less care must be avoided whatever is rhythmical, such as in Sallust, "falso queritur de natura sua." For although prose is bound, yet it ought to seem unbound.
atqui Plato, diligentissimus compositionis, ut Timaeo prima statim parte vitare ista non potuit.
And yet Plato, most painstaking in composition, could not avoid those things at the very beginning of the Timaeus.
§9.4.78nam et initium hexametri statim invenias, et Anacreontion protinus colon efficias, et si velis trimetron, et quod duobus pedibus et parte πενθημιμερές a Graecis dicitur, et haec omnia ut tribus versibus; et Thucydidi ὑπὲρ ἥμισυ κᾶρες ἐφάνησαν ex mollissimo rhythmorum genere excidit.
For one may find the beginning of a hexameter at once, and immediately form an Anacreontic colon, and if you wish, a trimeter, and what is called by the Greeks "penthemimeres", consisting of two feet and a part, and all these in three lines; and in Thucydides "ὑπὲρ ἥμισυ κᾶρες ἐφάνησαν" escaped, from the softest kind of rhythms.
§9.4.79sed quia omnem compositionem oratoriam constare pedibus dixi, aliqua de his quoque; quorum nomina quia varia traduntur, constituendum est, quo quemque appellemus.
But since I have said that all oratorical composition consists of feet, something must be said about these also; whose names, since they are handed down variously, it must be established by what name we shall call each.
equidem Ciceronem sequar, (nam is eminentissimos Graecorum est secutus) excepto quod pes mihi tris syllabas non videtur excedere, quanquam ille paeane dochmioque, quorum prior ut quattuor, secundus ut quinque excurrit, utatur.
For my part, I shall follow Cicero (for he followed the most eminent of the Greeks), except that a foot does not seem to me to exceed three syllables, although he uses the paean and dochmius, of which the former runs to four, the second to five syllables.
§9.4.80nec tamen ipse dissimulat, quibusdam numeros videri non pedes; neque immerito; quidquid est enim supra tris syllabas, id est ex pluribus pedibus.
Nor does he himself conceal that to some these seem to be rhythms, not feet; and not without reason; for whatever is above three syllables is made of more feet.
ergo cum constent quattuor pedes binis, octo ternis, spondeum longis duabus, pyrrhichium, quem alii pariambum vocant, brevibus, iambum brevi longaque, huic contrarium e longa et brevi choreum, non ut alii trochaeum nominemus.
Therefore, since four feet consist of two syllables, and eight of three, let us call the spondee of two long syllables, the pyrrhic (which others call pariambus) of short syllables, the iambus of a short and a long, and the choreus, opposite to this, of a long and a short, not, as others do, "trochee".
§9.4.81ex iis vero, qui ternas syllabas habent, dactylum longa duabusque brevibus, huic temporibus parem, sed retro actum appellari constat anapaeston.
But of those which have three syllables, it is established that the dactyl of a long and two shorts, and the anapaest, equal to this in times but reversed, are called so.
media inter longas brevis faciet amphimacrum, sed frequentius eius nomen est creticus; longa inter breves, amphibrachyn huic contrarium.
A short between long syllables will make an amphimacer, but its more frequent name is "cretic"; a long between shorts, the amphibrachys, which is opposite to this.
§9.4.82duabus longis brevem sequentibus bacchius, totidem longis brevem praecedentibus palimbacchius erit.
With two long syllables followed by a short, it will be a bacchius, and with the same number of long syllables preceding a short, it will be a palimbacchius.
tres breves trochaeum, quem tribrachyn dici volunt, qui choreo trochaei nomen imponunt; totidem longae molosson efficient.
Three short syllables make the trochee, which they wish to be called "tribrach", those who impose the name of trochee on the choreus; the same number of long syllables will make a molossus.
§9.4.83horum pedum nullus non ut orationem venit, sed quo quique sunt temporibus pleniores longisque syllabis magis stabiles, hoc graviorem faciunt orationem, breves celerem ac mobilem.
There is none of these feet which does not enter into prose, but according as each is fuller in times and more stable with long syllables, by so much they make the prose more dignified, the short ones rapid and active.
utrumque locis utile; nam et illud, ubi opus est velocitate, tardum et segne, et hoc, ubi pondus exigitur, praeceps ac resultans merito damnetur.
Both are useful in their places; for both the former, when there is need of speed, if it is slow and sluggish, and the latter, when weight is required, if it is headlong and bouncing, would be deservedly condemned.
§9.4.84sit ut hoc quoque aliquid fortasse momenti, quod et longis longiores et brevibus sunt breviores syllabae, ut, quamvis neque plus duobus temporibus neque uno minus habere videantur, ideoque ut metris omnes breves longaeque inter se ipsae sint pares, lateat tamen nescio quid quod supersit aut desit.
There may also be perhaps some weight in this, namely that both there are syllables longer than long syllables and shorter than short ones, so that, although they seem to have neither more than two times nor less than one, and therefore in meters all short and long syllables are equal among themselves, nevertheless there lies hidden I know not what which is in excess or is lacking.
nam versuum propria condicio est, ideoque ut his quaedam etiam communes.
For this is the proper condition of verses, and therefore in these some syllables are even common.