No More Learning

Lindsay's view is in substance this:

1. The saturnian line falls into two _cola_ of which the first (_a_)
contains _three_, the second (_b_) _two_ accented syllables.

2. _a_ contains seven syllables in all, _b_ contains six (occasionally
five), save when ᵕᵕ takes the place of one accented syllable.

3. The accent is always the normal Latin accent, according to the Law of
the Penultimate.

(A tetrasyllabic word has two accents when it stands at the beginning of
a line, and a pentasyllabic word always. )

4. Each line begins with an accented syllable.

These are the essential rules. In addition Lindsay has been at pains to
determine carefully the accentuation of 'word-groups'. Each word in a
Latin sentence has not necessarily an accent of its own. Thus _apud uos_
is accented _apúd-uos_; so again _in-grémium_, _quei-númquam_, _ís
hic-sítus_. No part of Lindsay's papers throws so much light on the
scansion of the saturnian verses as that which deals with these
word-groups: but it is impossible here to deal with the subject in
detail. I will give here the first two Scipio Epitaphs (5.
_i_, _ii_) as
they are scanned and accented by Lindsay:--

_i. _

Cornélius Lúcius | Scípio Barbátus,
Gnáiuod páter prognátus, | fórtis-uir sapiénsque,
quoìus fórma uirtútei | parísuma fúit,
cónsol, cénsor, aidílis | queí-fuit apúd-nos,
Tàurásia, Cisáuna, | Sámnio cépit,
Súbigit ómne Loucánam | ópsidesque abdóucit

_ii. _

Hónc óino plóirime | coséntiunt Római
dùonóro óptimo | fuíse uíro
Lúcium Scípiònem | fílios Barbáti
cónsol cénsor aidílis | híc-fuet apúd-nos:
híc cépit Córsica | Alériaque úrbe,
dédet Tèmpestátebus | áide méretod.

But is it certain, after all, that the accent-law in Saturnian verse
_is_ the Law of the Penultimate? There was, as is well known, a period
in the history of the Latin language when this Law did not obtain, but
all Latin words were alike accented on the first syllable. When this
period ended we cannot precisely determine. But, as Lindsay himself
points out, the influence of the old protosyllabic accentuation was not
quite dead even in the time of Plautus. [18] Now the saturnian verse
undoubtedly reaches back to a very remote antiquity: even of our extant
specimens some are very likely as old as the eighth century. It is
probable enough, therefore, that the accent-law known at any rate to the
first saturnian poets was the old protosyllabic law. And when we
remember the hieratic character of the earliest poetry, when we take
into account the conservatism of any priestly ritual or rule, may we not
suppose it possible that saturnian verse retained the ancient law of
accentuation long after the Law of the Penultimate had asserted itself
in ordinary speech and in other forms of literature? Accented, as
Lindsay accents it, according to the Law of the Penultimate, the
saturnian loses the lilt and swing which it has under the old
'Queen-and-Parlour' system.

dábunt málum Metélli Naéuio poétae

is not a music to pray to or dance to or die to. A much easier and more
lively movement would be

dábunt málum Mételli Naéuio póetae,

that is, the movement given by the old protosyllabic accentuation.

The suggestion that the protosyllabic accent survived as a conscious
archaism in saturnian verse right down to the time of the Scipios is, I
think, at any rate worth considering. It carries us into speculations
far wider than the particular problem with which it is immediately
concerned. For if the protosyllabic law did actually survive in this way
we can the more easily explain the swift and decisive victory which the
Hellenizing Latin poetry won over the old native verse.