The Hexameter verse is written in four-time or common measure, and consists of six feet. Each of the first four feet is either a dactyl (-), a long syllable followed by two short, or a spondee (--), two long syllables. The fifth foot is normally a dactyl; an exception will be found in III. 74. The sixth foot is either a spondee or a trochee (~~), a long syllable followed by a short. The scheme of the Hexameter may be given thus: One long syllable, marked —, is regarded as equivalent in time to two short syllables, marked. A long syllable is one that contains a long vowel or, though the vowel is short, ends with two consonants. A short syllable is one that contains a short vowel, followed by no consonant or by one only; but when the final syllable of a word contains a short vowel followed by one consonant, it becomes long if the next word begins with a consonant, e. g. tristior | ēt lăcrimis oculōs suffūsă nīļtēntīs. Here ět, though it is naturally short, becomes long because the following word begins with a consonant; but the last syllable of tristior, being naturally short, remains so before a vowel. On the other hand, the last syllable of lăcrimis, being naturally long, is so independently of the next word. It is important to remember that the addition of a consonant to a short syllable makes the syllable long, but not the vowel. The long mark over the vowel is a convenient way of indicating the length of the whole syllable. Caesura. If a foot is not contained in one word, we speak of its division as 'caesura' (cutting). Caesura may occur in any foot, though it is uncommon in the sixth, such endings as lupi ceu (II. 355) being rarely found; in the third foot it is almost necessary, and when we speak of 'the caesura' of a hexameter, we mean the break thus made in the third foot or, failing that, in the fourth, e. g. (a) qui mărĕ | quī tēr|rās || ōm|nis diciōně tělnērēnt. (I. 236.) (b) nunc ěǎldēm fōr|tūnă || vi|rōs tōt | casibus | actōs. (I. 240.) The caesura in the third foot is marked by the double line. In (a) it follows the first syllable of the foot, and in (b) the second. If it follows the first syllable either of a dactyl or of a spondee, the caesura is called strong; if it follows the second syllable of a dactyl, it is called weak. Both these forms of caesura are normal, but the strong caesura is much the more common, partly, no doubt, because the only possible division of a spondee is after the first syllable. If the line has the weak caesura or, much less frequently, no caesura at all in the third foot, the strong caesura is almost always found in the fourth. Elision. If a word ends with a vowel or with -am, -em, -im, -om, or -um, and the next word begins with a vowel or h, the ending of the first word is elided, that is, it is slurred so much in pronunciation that it is not counted as any part of a foot, e.g. litŏră multum ille ēt tēr|rīs iāc❘tātus ět | altō. (I. 3.) The last letter of ille and the two last letters of multum are omitted. Final m was scarcely pronounced, and therefore final -em was elided as naturally as final e; and for a similar reason a word beginning with h was treated as if it began with a vowel. Hiatus. Occasionally we find what is called hiatus, i.e a final vowel is not elided before a vowel at the beginning of the next word. (a) pōsthăbĭtā colůlíssě Să mō: hic | illius | ārmă. (I. 16.) (III. 74) (b) ēt vēļra incēs sū pătăļīt děă. | ille ŭbĭ | mātrēm. (I. 405. (c) Nērĕidūm mātrī ēt | Nēptūnō Aējgaeō. In (a) and (b) the break in the sense after Sămō and děă not merely justifies the hiatus, but makes elision almost impossible. In (c) the unelided vowel of mātrī is emphasized by the pause due to the caesura. Asto Neptuno Aē gaeō it should be noticed that the metrical stress. falls on the last syllable of Neptuno, as it is the first syllable of the foot. Moreover, Virgil is prone to take liberties with proper names. Lengthening of short final syllable. Examples are qui těněļañt nam în|cūltă viļdēt homĭ|nēsně fĕ|raeně. (I. 308.) (I. 651.) (II. 369.) A pause at the caesura is allowed to lengthen the time taken in pronouncing -dět, -rět, -vor, and thus make the short syllables long. Hypermetric syllable. If a vowel is the last letter of a line, it is not usually elided before a vowel at the beginning of the next, but in a few cases a hypermetric syllable, i.e. a syllable in excess of the metre, is got rid of by elision, e.g. iāctē mūr docĕļās īg|nāri homĭ|nūmquě lõjcōrūm|que erramus. (I. 332-3.) Virgil has about twenty examples; in seventeen of them the hypermetric syllable is -que. Incomplete lines. Virgil did not live to revise the Aeneid, and he left a number of incomplete lines in it. Examples will be found in II. 233, 720, 767. The peculiar quem tibi iam Troia is mentioned in the note on III. 340. If it is difficult to finish these lines satisfactorily, we need not be surprised, for Virgil did not find it easy at the moment; and it is, of course, probable enough that he would not have attempted to supply the missing part of the line, but would have altered the whole passage. AENEID BOOK I Virgil outlines the subject of his poem, invokes the Muse, and ARMA virumque cano, Troiae qui primus ab oris Musa, mihi causas memora, quo numine laeso |