Classical Languages - Latin - Syntax - The Period and Style

Period and Style

This page treats the Latin period, the long and carefully built sentence of the best prose, and the basics of style. It gives a method for reading a period in stages, introduces the principal figures of word order, sound and meaning with examples from the authors, explains how word order, rhythm and the end of the clause create emphasis, compares the plain style of Caesar, the elaborate periods of Cicero and the compressed manner of Tacitus, and ends with an outline of the hexameter. Everything in the earlier syntax pages is used here, since a period is built of main and subordinate clauses, participles, ablative absolutes and indirect speech.

Word order

Latin marks the function of each word by its ending, not by its position, and the order of the words is therefore free enough to serve emphasis. A neutral sentence has a usual order, and a departure from it carries meaning.

1. The usual order of a sentence puts the subject first and the verb last: Caesar hostēs vīcit. The object stands before the verb, an adjective often follows its noun, and a genitive often follows the noun that it depends on.
2. Position gives emphasis. The first and the last places of a clause are the strongest. A word moved to the front or the end of the clause draws attention.
3. The verb at the end keeps the sentence open until the last word, and this is the basis of the period.
4. A preposition normally stands before its noun, with an adjective between them often: magnō cum timōre with great fear.
5. Connecting words (et, sed, autem, enim, igitur) stand first or, in the case of autem, enim and igitur, in the second place.

Ūnus homō nōbīs cūnctandō restituit rem.

One man by delaying restored the state for us. (Ennius, quoted by Cicero, De Officiis 1.84; ūnus homō stands first for emphasis and rem last)

Period

A period (Greek periodos, a going round) is a long sentence in which the clauses are arranged around a main verb that comes late, so that the sense is held in suspense until the end. The main clause is often interrupted by subordinate clauses, participles and ablative absolutes, and the reader must keep the grammar in mind until the verb resolves it.

A period usually has these features:

A method for reading a period

1. Find the main verb. It is usually near the end, and it is the verb that has no subordinating word in front of it.
2. Mark the openers of the subordinate clauses: the conjunctions (cum, ut, sī, quod, dum) and the relative and interrogative words (quī, quis, quō).
3. Find the verb of each clause. The verb of a subordinate clause also comes at the end of its own clause.
4. Classify each clause (temporal, purpose, relative, indirect statement) and note its mood.
5. Group the clauses and check what depends on what.
6. Trace the connecting relatives and pronouns back to their antecedents.
7. Translate in the English order, beginning with the main clause or with the circumstances according to what is most natural.

A worked period

Caesarī cum id nūntiātum esset, eōs per prōvinciam nostram iter facere cōnārī, mātūrat ab urbe proficīscī et quam maximīs potest itineribus in Galliam ulteriōrem contendit et ad Genavam pervenit.

When it was reported to Caesar that they were trying to make a march through our province, he hurries to set out from the city, makes for Further Gaul by the longest marches that he can, and arrives at Geneva. (Caesar, De Bello Gallico 1.7)

The structure is that of the period: the circumstance in the cum clause comes first, and the three main verbs follow in order, joined by et.

Connecting relative in the period

The relative pronoun at the head of a sentence ties it to the preceding one (see Indirect questions and relative clauses):

Quae cum ita sint, Catilīna, perge quō coepistī.

Since these things are so, Catiline, go on where you have begun. (Cicero, First Catilinarian 1.10)

Figures of word order and sound

1. Hyperbaton is the most characteristic Latin figure. The adjective Lāvīnia is separated from its noun lītora by the verb, and the two words frame the phrase.

2. Chiasmus is the pattern in which ēsse and edās frame vīvās and vīvere.

3. Anaphora and asyndeton often appear together, as in the repeated nihil.

4. Tricolon is the group of three, the favourite number of Latin rhetoric. Vēnī, vīdī, vīcī is also a tricolon and an alliteration.

5. A tetracolon (four members) with asyndeton:

   Abiit, excessit, ēvāsit, ērūpit.

   He has gone, he has left, he has escaped, he has burst out. (Cicero, Second Catilinarian 1)

Figures of meaning

... ubi sōlitūdinem faciunt, pācem appellant.

... where they make a desert, they call it peace. (Tacitus, Agricola 30; the British chief Calgacus on the Romans)

Emphasis, rhythm and the end of the clause

1. First and last position. The first word of a clause sets the topic and the last word carries the weight: Ūnus homō nōbīs cūnctandō restituit rem.
2. Separation. Words that are far apart attract attention, and the words between them are placed in a frame (hyperbaton).
3. Rhythm. Cicero shaped the end of a clause, the clausula, with a favoured pattern of long and short syllables. One of his favourite endings is the double cretic of esse videātur. The effect is a sense of closure at the end of the period.
4. Balance. Cicero tends to set clauses of equal length against each other, and to end them with similar forms (homoeoteleuton).
5. Variation. A change in the length of the clause or in its construction (variatio) avoids monotony.

Three styles

1. Caesar writes the plain style of the military report. The sentences are clear, the clauses are in logical order, and the figures are few.
2. Cicero writes the period at its fullest. The three questions that open the First Catilinarian form a tricolon with a growing length and a repeated form.
3. Tacitus writes in short, pointed sentences. Urbem Rōmam ā prīncipiō rēgēs habuēre. (From the beginning kings held the city of Rome.) has the object first, the subject second and the verb last, in the short form habuēre for habuērunt.

An outline of the hexameter

Epic verse (Vergil, Ovid in the Metamorphoses, Lucretius) is written in dactylic hexameter, a line of six feet. The long syllables are marked L and the short syllables S.

- u u | - u u | - u u | - u u | - u u | - x

1. The first four feet are dactyls (one long, two short) or spondees (two long), and the fifth is almost always a dactyl. The sixth is a spondee or a trochee.
2. Quantity. A syllable is long by nature (a long vowel or a diphthong) or by position (a short vowel followed by two consonants).
3. Elision. A vowel at the end of a word is lost before a vowel (or h) at the beginning of the next.
4. Caesura. A word-ending in the middle of a foot, most often in the third foot, divides the line.
5. The macrons used in this course show the quantity of the vowels by nature, which is the first step in scanning.

A full treatment of scansion is beyond this page. See the books listed below.

Parsing practice

Name the figure or analyse the clause.

1. Caesarī cum id nūntiātum esset ... ad Genavam pervenit (Caesar, De Bello Gallico 1.7): find the main verbs.
2. Vēnī, vīdī, vīcī.
3. Abiit, excessit, ēvāsit, ērūpit. (Cicero, Second Catilinarian 1)
4. Nihil ... nihil ... nihil ... (Cicero, First Catilinarian 1.1)
5. Ēsse oportet ut vīvās, nōn vīvere ut edās.
6. Nōn ignāra malī (Vergil, Aeneid 1.630)
7. Lāvīniaque vēnit lītora (Vergil, Aeneid 1.2–3)
8. Ītaliam contrā (Vergil, Aeneid 1.13)
9. Cererem corruptam undīs (Vergil, Aeneid 1.177)
10. Ō nāvis, referent in mare tē novī fluctūs. (Horace, Odes 1.14.1)
11. ubi sōlitūdinem faciunt, pācem appellant (Tacitus, Agricola 30)
12. magnō cum murmure montis (Vergil, Aeneid 1.55)

Answers

1. The main verbs are mātūrat, contendit and pervenit; the cum clause and the accusative and infinitive come first.
2. Asyndeton and tricolon, with alliteration of v.
3. Tetracolon with asyndeton and climax.
4. Anaphora (the repeated nihil) with asyndeton.
5. Chiasmus: ēsse and edās frame vīvās and vīvere.
6. Litotes: not unacquainted with misfortune.
7. Hyperbaton: Lāvīnia and lītora are separated.
8. Anastrophe: the preposition contrā stands after its noun.
9. Metonymy: Cerēs, the goddess, for grain.
10. Metaphor (an allegory of the ship of state).
11. Antithesis in a compressed, epigrammatic form: sōlitūdinem against pācem.
12. Alliteration of m.

Common pitfalls

• Reading the words in Latin order as if they were English. Find the verb and the clause structure first.
• Reading a period word by word. Group the clauses and find the main verb before translating.
• Ignoring the word that comes first or last. These positions carry emphasis.
• Joining a separated adjective to the nearest noun. Check the endings: in hyperbaton the adjective agrees with a word that is far away.
• Translating a figure too literally. Not unacquainted (litotes) means well acquainted.
• Confusing chiasmus and parallelism. Chiasmus crosses the order (ABBA) and parallelism keeps it (ABAB).
• Confusing asyndeton and ellipsis. Asyndeton omits conjunctions; ellipsis omits a word that the sense supplies.
• Taking the word order as random. A departure from the neutral order has a reason.
• Treating metonymy as a mistake. Cerēs for grain and Mars for war are figures.
• Reading verse without marking the quantity. Scansion rests on the length of each syllable.

Self-test

1. What is a period, and what is its main feature?
2. List the steps for reading a period.
3. Define hyperbaton, chiasmus, anaphora, asyndeton, polysyndeton and tricolon.
4. Give an example of each of the first four from this page.
5. What is litotes? Give the example from Vergil.
6. Contrast the style of Caesar with the style of Cicero.
7. Why are the first and the last places of a clause emphatic?
8. Explain the antithesis in Tacitus, Agricola 30.
9. What is the pattern of the hexameter?
10. Name the figures in Vēnī, vīdī, vīcī.

Answers

1. A period is a long sentence built round a main verb that comes late, so the sense is held in suspense until the end.
2. Find the main verb; mark the openers of the subordinate clauses; find each clause verb; classify the clauses; group them; trace the connecting relatives; translate in the English order.
3. Hyperbaton: separation of words that belong together. Chiasmus: a crossed order ABBA. Anaphora: the repetition of a word at the start of clauses. Asyndeton: the omission of conjunctions. Polysyndeton: the repetition of conjunctions. Tricolon: a group of three parallel members.
4. Lāvīnia ... lītora; ēsse ... vīvās ... vīvere ... edās; nihil ... nihil ... nihil; Vēnī, vīdī, vīcī.
5. Litotes is an affirmation by the negation of the opposite: Nōn ignāra malī, well acquainted with misfortune.
6. Caesar is plain and clear, with short clauses and few figures. Cicero is elaborate, with long periods, balance, rhythm and figures.
7. The first word sets the topic and the last word closes the clause with weight, and the departure from the neutral order calls attention.
8. sōlitūdinem (desert) is set against pācem (peace): the Romans call destruction peace.
9. Six feet; the first four dactyls or spondees, the fifth a dactyl, the sixth a spondee or a trochee.
10. Asyndeton, tricolon and alliteration.

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