3. The accent is always the normal Latin accent, according to the Law of the Penultimate.
(A tetrasyllabic word has two accents when it stands at the beginning of a line, and a pentasyllabic word always.)
4. Each line begins with an accented syllable.
These are the essential rules. In addition Lindsay has been at pains to determine carefully the accentuation of 'word-groups'. Each word in a Latin sentence has not necessarily an accent of its own. Thus apud uosis accented apъd-uos; so again in-grйmium, quei-nъmquam, нs hic-sнtus. No part of Lindsay's papers throws so much light on the scansion of the saturnian verses as that which deals with these word-groups: but it is impossible here to deal with the subject in detail. I will give here the first two Scipio Epitaphs (5. i, ii) as they are scanned and accented by Lindsay:—
i.
Cornйlius Lъcius | Scнpio Barbбtus,
Gnбiuod pбter prognбtus, | fуrtis-uir sapiйnsque,
quoмus fуrma uirtъtei | parнsuma fъit,
cуnsol, cйnsor, aidнlis | queн-fuit apъd-nos,
Tаurбsia, Cisбuna, | Sбmnio cйpit,
Sъbigit уmne Loucбnam | уpsidesque abdуucit
ii.
Hуnc уino plуirime | cosйntiunt Rуmai
dщonуro уptimo | fuнse uнro
Lъcium Scнpiтnem | fнlios Barbбti
cуnsol cйnsor aidнlis | hнc-fuet apъd-nos:
hнc cйpit Cуrsica | Alйriaque ъrbe,
dйdet Tиmpestбtebus | бide mйretod.
But is it certain, after all, that the accent-law in Saturnian verse isthe Law of the Penultimate? There was, as is well known, a period in the history of the Latin language when this Law did not obtain, but all Latin words were alike accented on the first syllable. When this period ended we cannot precisely determine. But, as Lindsay himself points out, the influence of the old protosyllabic accentuation was not quite dead even in the time of Plautus.[18] Now the saturnian verse undoubtedly reaches back to a very remote antiquity: even of our extant specimens some are very likely as old as the eighth century. It is probable enough, therefore, that the accent-law known at any rate to the first saturnian poets was the old protosyllabic law. And when we remember the hieratic character of the earliest poetry, when we take into account the conservatism of any priestly ritual or rule, may we not suppose it possible that saturnian verse retained the ancient law of accentuation long after the Law of the Penultimate had asserted itself in ordinary speech and in other forms of literature? Accented, as Lindsay accents it, according to the Law of the Penultimate, the saturnian loses the lilt and swing which it has under the old 'Queen-and-Parlour' system.
dбbunt mбlum Metйlli Naйuio poйtae
is not a music to pray to or dance to or die to. A much easier and more lively movement would be
dбbunt mбlum Mйtelli Naйuio pуetae,
that is, the movement given by the old protosyllabic accentuation.
The suggestion that the protosyllabic accent survived as a conscious archaism in saturnian verse right down to the time of the Scipios is, I think, at any rate worth considering. It carries us into speculations far wider than the particular problem with which it is immediately concerned. For if the protosyllabic law did actually survive in this way we can the more easily explain the swift and decisive victory which the Hellenizing Latin poetry won over the old native verse. What was conquered was an archaism, something purely artificial. The conquering force was not merely Hellenism but Hellenism plusa complete and radical change in Latin speech.
If anyone cares to analyse the extant remains of saturnian verse in the light of this suggestion, I would formulate three rules which can, I think, be deduced:
1. Each line has five feet, and each foot contains one accented syllable pluseither one or two unaccented syllables.[19] The first foot, however, mayconsist of a monosyllable.
2. The third foot must consist of a trisyllabic word or 'word-group'[20]: save that occasionally the second and third feet together may be formed of a quadrisyllabic (or pentasyllabic) word with secondary accent.
3. The first and second, and again the fourth and fifth, feet may be either disyllabic or trisyllabic: but ( a) two trisyllables may not follow one another in the first two feet, and ( b) if the fifth foot (usually trisyllabic) is a disyllable the fourth must be trisyllabic.
The normal type is
─м─ ── │ ─м─ ── │ ─м─ ── ── ││ ─м─ ── │ ─м─ ── ── ││ ─м─ ── ──
A common variation in the first two feet is either ─м─ ── ── │ ─м─ ──, or ─м─ ── │ ─м─ ── ──. A somewhat rare variation in the last two is ─м─ ── ── │ ─м─ ──. In the first foot ─м─ sometimes replaces ─м─ ── (or ─м─ ── ──), no doubt owing to the greater stress at the opening of the verse.
Some exceptions (or apparent exceptions) to these rules will no doubt be found. But the rules cover most of the extant examples of saturnian verse: and it must be remembered that the text of our fragments is often not at all certain. The system outlined has, however, the merit—which it shares with Lindsay—that it dispenses with most of the alterations of the text in which other systems involve us.
The Hymn of the Arval Brotherhood.
I have given the text of this celebrated piece according to what may be called the Vulgate; and in the sub-title, in the Glossary and in my Introduction p. 1 I have followed the ordinary interpretation. I may perhaps be allowed here to suggest a different view of the poem.
It begins with an appeal to the Lares. These are apparently the Lares Consitivi, gods of sowing. Then comes an appeal to Marmar, then to Mars. Then the Semones are invoked, who, like the Lares, are gods of sowing. There follows a final appeal to Marmar.
It is pretty clear that the Mars, Marmar, or Marmor, invoked in such iteration is not the war-god, but Mars in his more ancient character of a god of agriculture. But if this be so, what are we to make of lines 7-9,
satur fu, fere Mars: limen sali: sta berber,
'Be thou glutted, fierce Mars, leap the threshold, stay thy scourge',—or, as Buecheler takes it, 'stand, wild god'? This sort of language is appropriate enough to Mars as god of war, but utterly inappropriate to the farmer's god[21].
Now it so happens that for
satur fu, fere Mars: limen sali, sta berber
the monumental stone to which we owe this inscription offers at one point
satur fu, fere Mars limen saii sia berber.
Now, when we remember the Lares Consitivi and the Semones, does it not look very much as though saturstood for sator, as though ferewere a blunder for sere, as though saiiwere the vocative of Saius, 'sower' (cf. Seia a goddess of sowing, and Greek уάщ уήищ), as though siawere the imperative of the verb sio(moisten)[22], and as though, finally, berberwere to be connected with the Greek вόсвпсхт and meant 'loam'? (I would give much the same sense, 'fat soil' to limen: (from the root lib-: cf. Gk. леίвщ леймώн).)