=Stylistic Features of Latin Verse and Prose=

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

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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.

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Example 1

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

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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.

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Example 2

Latin

magnae periculo opes

Analysis: The word 'periculo' separates the words 'magnae' and 'opes'.

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Hendiadyon

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

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Parallelism

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

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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.

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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.

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Example 4

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

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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.

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Example 5

Latin	English
non ignorare	to not be ignorant of
As opposed to...
tenere	to be knowledgable of

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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.

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Example 6

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

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Epiphora

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

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Asyndeton

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

As you can see, an Asyndeton is a multiple nummeration without the "et (and)"

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Polysyndeton

This is a nummeration with et:

veni et vidi et vici

This means loads of conjuctions

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Pluralis modestiae

This is a 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."