XX
Terentianus Maurus on Metre:
Now the analysis, which we will explain, will give us the metre in which they say
that Anacreon wrote his sweet old songs. We find that Petronius, as well as many
others, used this metre, when he says that this same lyric poet sang in words
harmonious to the Muses. But I will explain with what kind of caesura this verse is
written. In the line “
Iuverunt segetes meum laborem
” (“
The cornfields have lightened my labour
”), the word “
iuverunt
” is the beginning of a hexameter: the remaining words “
segetes meum laborem
” are in the same metre as
"triplici vides ut ortu
Triviae rotetur ignis
volucrique Phoebus axe
rapidum pererret orbem"
（“
You see how the fire of Trivia spins round from her threefold
rising,1 and
Phoebus on his winged wheel traverses the hurrying globe
”.)
