Table Of ContentBenjamin W.Fortson IV
Language and Rhythm in Plautus
≥
Sozomena
Studies in the Recovery of Ancient Texts
Edited
on behalf of the Herculaneum Society
by
Alessandro Barchiesi, Robert Fowler,
Dirk Obbink and Nigel Wilson
Vol. 3
Walter de Gruyter · Berlin · New York
Benjamin W. Fortson IV
Language and Rhythm
in Plautus
Synchronic and Diachronic Studies
Walter de Gruyter · Berlin · New York
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Contents
Preface and Acknowledgments ................................ VII
Abbreviations and Symbols ................................... XI
Chapter One: Preliminaries................................... 1
Chapter Two: Plautine Iambo-Trochaics ........................ 20
Chapter Three: The Linguistic Background of Luchs(cid:2)s Law ....... 34
Chapter Four: Meyer(cid:2)s and Jacobsohn(cid:2)s Laws ................... 54
Chapter Five: Enjambement .................................. 98
Chapter Six: The Aphaeresis of Est............................ 134
Chapter Seven: Breuis Breuians I ............................. 176
Chapter Eight: Breuis Breuians II ............................. 217
ChapterNine:TowardsaReconstructionoftheProsodyofPlautine
Latin Speech ............................................ 259
Bibliography ................................................ 271
Index Locorum ............................................. 289
Preface and Acknowledgments
It has been slightly over a decade since I wrote the original version of
these studies as my doctoral thesis, Studies in the Prosody of Plautine
Latin (Harvard, 1996). The intervening years required not only consid-
eration of a good deal of new secondary literature but also many
substantial changes over several drafts—in the end more than enough to
justifyanewtitle.Mostofmyoriginalconclusionshaveremainedasthey
were, but many sections both long and short have been partly or
completely reworked, scrapped, or added, and the argumentation
throughout has been revised, updated, and tightened wherever possible.
The longer chapters were split up to accommodate the numerous
additions; the bulk of Ch.8 is entirely new. So as not to reinvent the
wheelentirely,Ihadtobeselectiveinwhatmaterialtorevise;hopefully,
thefact thatthe resultant bookwasnot written ineinem Zughasnotled
to too many inconsistencies in style or content.
I must first thank Andrew Dyke for initially spurring me to publish
this work and for the many helpful comments and suggestions he made
from his reading of the then unrevised thesis. Brent Vine also read
through the unrevised work with his customary care and insightfulness,
allowingmetoimprovethediscussion ofmanypartsofitand,bydintof
his own enthusiastic support, renewing my desire to wrangle with some
issuesthat Ihadessentially givenuptryingtosolve.(Istillmaynothave
solved them all,but atleast Ibelievethe bookis better asa result ofthe
renewed wrangling.) More recently, Mark Hale read through the
antepenultimate draft and suggested a number of important improve-
ments especially in my reasoning and argumentation, and commented
extensively on many sections.
My greatestdebtof gratitude, though,goes toLucio Ceccarelli, who,
withouthavingpreviouslymademyacquaintance,verykindlyacquiesced
to my request to read the same draft and subject it to his metrician(cid:2)s
careful eye. He generated dozens of pages of invaluable commentary,
savedmefrom countless errors,anddirectedmetoimportant works and
views in the metrical literature that I had overlooked or not considered
carefully enough. I take this opportunity to express global thanks for his
exhaustive input, most of which is reflected in one way or another in the
VIII PrefaceandAcknowledgments
final product. I trust he will forgive me if some of the more minor of his
contributionshavebeenincorporatedsilently,iffornootherreasonthan
to lower the number of distracting footnotes acknowledging him.
Needless to say, neither he nor my other colleagues are to be held
responsible for the work(cid:2)s shortcomings, and they do not necessarily
agreewithallmyapproachesorclaims.1Imustrelyonthesharpeyesand
minds of my readers to identify (and perhaps solve) the remaining
problems.
ForhelpwithindividualissuesscatteredthroughoutIamadditionally
indebted to the participants at several conferences and other settings
where some sections of the work were presented in earlier form. Dirk
Obbink receives my gratitude for inviting me to publish this book in the
new series Sozomena, and I am indebted both to him and to Dr. Sabine
Vogtforsoablyseeingitthroughtheeditorialandproductionprocessat
de Gruyter.
Thefinalresearchandwritingwerecompletedduringayearspentin
Halle an der Saale as a visiting research associate at the Seminar f(cid:3)r
Indogermanistik und Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft, Martin-Luther-
Universit(cid:4)t. This research stay was made possible through a generous
fellowship administered by the Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung,
supplemented by a Horace G. Rackham Travel Fellowship and Faculty
FellowshipEnhancementAwardbestowedbytheUniversityofMichigan.
Iwouldlike tothanktheheadofthe Seminar,Prof.Gerhard Meiser,for
so graciously hosting me and for affording me access to all the facilities
thatIneededattheuniversity.MycolleaguesOlavHacksteinandSabine
H(cid:4)usler were also invaluable in numberless ways, both scholarly and
practical, prior to my arrival and during my completion of this project.
My stay in Halle additionally would not have been possible without the
aid of Richard Janko, Brent Vine, and my erstwhile dissertation director
Calvert Watkins, for whose efforts and support I remain deeply
appreciative. Finally, the fact that my family—Kelly, Christopher, and
Halle-born Cecilia—could be with me in Germany made the time spent
completing this book all the more enjoyable.
1 DuringmywritingoftheoriginaldissertationIwasaidedgreatlybydiscussions
with A. S. Gratwick during the semester that he was in residence at Harvard.
Regrettably he was unable to comment on the revised work, so some of the
views that he imparted to me a decade ago and that I still cite in this revision
maynotreflecthiscurrentthinking.
PrefaceandAcknowledgments IX
Plautus wrote to make us laugh, and he might well have found it
funny that generations of scholars have sweated blood trying to under-
stand the workings of his numeri innumeri. Without those luminaries,
both past and present, this book could never have been imagined. I may
depart from some or all of them at times, but there is little of which I
stand in greater awe than their dedication to and insightfulness in
unraveling the mysteries of this one Roman author(cid:2)s art. I hope this
modest contribution is worthy of their imposing company. But long
beforeIhadeverheardofthelikesofBentley,Ritschl,andLindsaycame
another sine quo non, Raymond R. Fitzgerald, now S.J., who taught me
my first Latin in grade school and inspired me to do what I do now. To
him this book is most gratefully dedicated.
Ben Fortson
Halle an der Saale, July 2007
