2563. (1.) In all probability, the hexameter was originally a composite
verse, made up of two tripodies, or of a tetrapody and a dipody. Hence
hiatus in the principal caesura is not very rare, even in the Augustan
poets. The stress upon the first and fourth theses was probably stronger
than that upon the other four.
2564. (2.) In the second half of the hexameter, particularly in the
fifth and sixth feet, verse-ictus and word-accent show a strong tendency
to coincide.
2565. (3.) A monosyllable rarely stands before the principal caesura or
at the end of the verse. When the verse ends in a monosyllable, the
thesis of the last foot is generally a monosyllable also, as in the line
Crīspīnus minimō mē prōvocat; accipe, sī vīs (H. _S._ 1, 4, 14).
Exceptions to this rule sometimes occur when the poet wishes to produce
a particular effect, as in
Parturient montēs, nāscētur rīdiculus mūs (H. _AP._ 139).
2566. (4.) A hexameter generally ends in a word of two or three
syllables, almost never in one of four, rarely in one of five. But
_spondaic_ verses (2556) generally end with a word of four syllables,
more rarely with one of three, almost never with one of two.
2567. (5.) Spondaic verses are comparatively rare in Ennius and
Lucretius, but become more frequent in Catullus. They are not common in
Vergil, Horace, Propertius and Ovid, and do not occur at all in
Tibullus. Persius has one spondaic verse, Valerius Flaccus one, Claudian
five, Silius Italicus six, Statius seven. Ennius has lines composed
entirely of spondees, and so in one instance (116, 3) Catullus. Ennius
also resolves the thesis of a dactyl in a few cases.
2568. (6.) A verse which is connected with the following one by elision
(2492) is called hypermetrical. Such verses are rare, and usually end
with the enclitics #-que# or #-ve#.
2569. (7.) The dactylic hexameter was introduced into Latin literature
by Ennius, and was further perfected by Lucilius, Lucretius, and Cicero,
who took him as their model. Catullus and the group to which he belonged
followed Alexandrian models more closely, while the great poets of the
Augustan age carried the technique of the hexameter to its highest
perfection. Horace in his lyric poetry treats the hexameter with great
strictness; but in the Satires and Epistles he handles it with much
freedom, imparting to the measure a more colloquial character by the
frequent use of spondees and by less rigorous treatment of the caesura.