# Latin/Stylistic Features of Latin Verse and Prose

# Stylistic Features of Latin Verse and Prose

This is a brief glossary of stylistic features often found in Latin
especially in rhetoric and poetry.

## Alliteration

Alliteration is a common poetic technique used in Latin from the
earliest surviving fragments to the latest literary age. In alliteration
there is a repetition of the initial consonantal letter.

### Example 1

  Latin                 English
  --------------------- ----------------------------
  Caesar cum Cicerone   Caesar, with Cicero
  Veni,Vidi,Vici        I came, I saw, I conquered
  bellum bonum          good war

## Hyperbaton

Hyperbaton is the arranging of words in a particular manner to produce
an effect. Hyperbaton is used often in Latin literature because Latin
syntax is far more flexible than English.

### Example 2

  Latin                                 English
  ------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------
  magnae periculo opes Karthago, \...   danger because of great wealth/resources of Carthage, \...

Analysis: The word \'periculo\' separates the words \'magnae\' and
\'opes\' even if it should be used before *magnae opes*.

## Hendiadys

Hendiadys is a rhetorical and poetic technique that uses the
juxtaposition of two or more words with a similar meaning to reinforce
an idea.

## Parallelism

Parallelism is a stylistic device common in Latin in which two sentences
have similar syntax.

### Example 3

  Latin                       English
  --------------------------- ------------------------
  Italia in Europa est.       Italy is in Europe.
  Marcus ad scholam currit.   Marcus runs to school.

Analysis: In both sentences the nominative is placed first and the
principal verb is last.

## Chiasmus

Chiasmus is the reverse of parallelism, because syntactic structures are
inverted. The name is from the Greek letter Chi which resembles an X and
illustrates symmetrical crossing. A good example is the aphorism quod
cibus est aliis, aliis est venenum, \"What is food to some, to others is
poison.\" The pattern is: noun, verb, pronoun; pronoun, verb, noun.

### Example 4

  Latin              English
  ------------------ -------------------
  Claudiam laudo.    I praise Claudia.
  Venio ad Marcum.   I come to Marcus.

## Litotes

The negation of a verb instead of using an antonym is a poetical device
known as litotes. Litotes is much weaker than simply using an antonym.
Litotes is often used as underestimation.

### Example 5

  Latin               English
  ------------------- ------------------------
  non ignorare        to not be ignorant of
  As opposed to\...   
  tenere              to be knowledgeable of

## Anaphora

The rhetorical figure called anaphora is often used in conjunction with
parallelism where the first word in the first sentence of a paragraph or
stanza is repeated in the following sentences. It is sometimes used
where the initial word in a sentence must be understood in the clauses
or sentences that follow.

### Example 6

  Latin                                      English
  ------------------------------------------ ----------------------------------------------
  timeo ne non pueri essent boni in schola   I dread that the boys are not good in school
  timeo ne non puellae essent bonae domi     I dread that the girls are not good at home

Analysis: `<i>`{=html}timeo`</i>`{=html} is repeated in the sentence,
although not strictly necessary

## Epistrophe

An epistrophe is a rhetorical device like anaphora except at the end of
a sentence.

## Asyndeton

  Latin            English
  ---------------- ----------------------------
  Veni,vidi,vici   I came, I saw, I conquered

As you can see, an asyndeton is a multiple numeration without the \"et
(and)\"

## Polysyndeton

This is a numeration **with** et:

Veni et vidi et vici.

Polysyndeton is marked by the repeated use of the same conjunction
(et\...et\...et) or (neque\...neque\...neque). It is the direct opposite
of asyndeton (listing with no conjunctions).

## Pluralis modestiae

This is an advanced technique, often used in ancient fabulae, by Aesop
and others.

It means that the Plural is used to show \"modestia\", for example

\"officium magnum e nostro est.\"

