in carmine & loco reperias - , ponere ∪ ∪ secundum rei naturam potes . Quod vel in Heroicis ipsis Virgilianis accidit , ubi praeter Dactylum qui sua volubilitate Spondaei gravitatem excitat , ∪ ∪ - reperias , ut Fluviorum Rex Eridanus & c . et ∪ ∪ ∪ ∪ ut Genua labant humo . Sic Homerus Πηληϊάδεω Ἀχιλῆος , quia - in ∪ ∪ resolvitur , neque quidquam plus ∪ ∪ quam - valent .
Sed hoc secures ab alis differ , quod illarum primo dexteram totam , deinde sinistram legamus . In securi vero post primum , hoc est remotissimum a manubrio versum ad dexteram , statim primum , hoc est extimum alterius faciei legamus . Mox ad secundum dextri lateris , tum ad secundum sinistri , atque ita deinceps reliquos percurramus . Simmiam Rhodium vos ipsi consulite . Atque haec de imaginibus satis .
( I celebrate both the first builder of a ship and the axe which he had used to build it , since my Maecenas has indeed returned safe and sound from France by sea . In almost the same way Horace prays ( Odes 1.3 ), because Virgil , half his own soul , had gone away ( by sea ). The lines are choriambics , exactly as in others , except that I have closed the fifth and sixth not with ∪ - - but with ∪ - ∪ ∪ , and similarly I have done the same thing in the final position . This does not matter in poems of this kind , since indeed in whatever poem or position you find - , you can put ∪ ∪ according to the nature of the thing . This happens even in Virgilian Heroics , where in addition to a dactyl which enlivens the weight of a spondee with its rapid motion , you may find ∪ ∪ - , such as ‘ Fluviorum Rex Eridanus ’ etc ., and ∪ ∪ ∪ ∪ such as ‘ Genua labant humo .’ Thus in Homer Πηληϊάδεω Ἀχιλῆος , since - is resolved into ∪ ∪ , nor do ∪ ∪ count for anything more than - .
But distinguish the axes from the wings in this way , namely that we should read first the whole right side of the wings , then the left . But in the axe after the first line , the furthest to the right from the handle , we should immediately read the first , the most extreme line , of the other side . Then to the second line of the right side , then to the second of the left , and so in turn we should go through the rest . Look for yourselves at Simmias of Rhodes . And that ’ s enough about the patterns .)
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