# 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: timeo 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."