Papers of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens (4.1885-1886)

54

ON GREEK VERSIFICATION IN INSCRIPTIONS.

(also 179, lx, cxix) ; but to be quite fair, we will exclude these also.1
Two verses with <=s and to after the trochaic caesura of the fourth
foot will be cited below, p. 55. We have therefore seventeen cases
on this side. Making these changes in the above table, we should

get:

With Bucolic Caesura. Without Bucolic Caesura.

Dactyl. Spondee. Tota.. J™, T°'aI-

Cent. VI-V . . 42 12 54 6 74 80

Cent. IV-II . . 250 41 291 42 203 245

Cypriote ....2 2 4 I 3 4

Indeterm. . . . 1 1 2 - 1 1

295 56 351 49 281 330

which is perhaps a fairer statement than the other. Either table
shows clearly: (1) the great difference between earlier and later
times in the liking for the break after the fourth foot — a difference
of at least 1:2; and (2) the stronger preference in the later period
for the dactylic ending before this break.

As between elegiacs and pure hexameters there is no material
difference in the use of the. bucolic caesura. Omitting the indistin-
guishable inscriptions, and using the unsifted statistics as in the first
table above, we find :

Hexameters. Elegiacs.

Without Without
Dactyl. Spondee. Total. bucolic Dactyl. Spondee. Total. bucolic
caesura. caesura.

Cent. VI-V ... 20 11 33 41 22 4 26 32

Cent. IV-II. . . 70 25 95 71 184 40 224 127

Cypriote..... 2 3 5 3

Indeterm..... I 1 2 - - — — 1

3. — Trochaic Caesura of the Fourth Foot;

Verses like ttoWo. 8' ap IvOa kcu ivff lOvcre /j-dxr] ireStoLO (K 2) are
exceedingly rare and commonly regarded as faulty. But our inscrip-
tions of more uncouth composition contain a number of examples
of this form. Isyllus of Epidaurus has distinguished himself by
several.

1 I do not, of course, count out cases like t'it9tji> Kara ya?a KaAuirTei.