metrum

Updated: May 20, 2025

Hence the rude rhythmical effusions, which contained the early Roman story, might be called Saturnian, not with reference to their metrical law, but to their antiquity; and the term Saturnius was also applied to a definite measure on the principles of Greek prosody, though rudely and loosely moulded the measure employed by Naevius, which soon became antiquated, when Ennius introduced the hexameter and which is the metrum Saturnium recognised by the grammarians."

Charles Thomas Cruttwell - The History of Roman Literature : From the earliest period to the death of Marcus Aurelius

His poems are a mere handful; his excellent Metrum is a fragment; and as Professor of History at Cambridge he never did anything at all. They do not seem to have known each other personally. The varieties of what may be called literary exercise which have been utilised for educational or recreative purposes, are almost innumerable. As far as the accidents are concerned. The essentials vary not.

George Saintsbury - A Letter Book: Selected with an Introduction on the History and Art of Letter-Writing