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[75] the cadence of a verse is not suitable to the cadence of a period: compare the phrase of Cicero, Quo me vertam, nescio,1 which is the end of a trimeter. It matters not whether we speak of a trimeter or of a senarius, since the line has six feet and three beats. The end of a hexameter forms a yet worse conclusion; compare the following passage from the letters of Brutus: neque illi malunt halbere tutores aut defensores, quoniam causam sciunt placuiisse Catoni.2

1 pro Lig. i. 1, pro Cluent. i. 4.

2 “They ask for no guardians or defenders since they know that the cause has won the approval of Cato.”

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load focus Introduction (Harold Edgeworth Butler, 1922)
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