Editing Dactylic hexameter (section)

=== Ennius ===

The earliest example of hexameter in Latin poetry is the panegyric history of Rome, ''Annales'', by [[Ennius]]{{r|king2009|p=137}}, establishing a standard for later Latin epics. Ennius experimented with different kinds of lines{{cn|date=March 2025}}, for example, lines with five dactyls:

:{{lang|la|tum tuba / terribi/li soni/tu tara/tantara / dixit}}<ref>Ennius ap. Prisc. p. 842 P. (Ann. v. 452 Vahl.)</ref>
:"Then the trumpet with terrifying sound went 'taratantara!'"

or lines consisting entirely of spondees:

:{{lang|la|olli / respon/dit rex / Alba/i Lon/gai}}<ref>Ennius, ''Annales'' 1.31.</ref>
:"To him replied the king of Alba Longa"

lines without a caesura{{r|raven1965|p=95}}:

:{{lang|la|sparsis / hastis / longis / campus / splendet et / horret}}<ref>Ennius, ''Varia'' 14V.</ref>
:"With scattered long spears the plain gleams and bristles"

lines ending in a one-syllable word or in words of more than three syllables{{r|raven1965|p=99}}:

:{{lang|la|unus ho/mo no/bis cunc/tando / restitu/it rem}}<ref>Ennius ''Annales'' 370.</ref>
:"A single man, by delaying, restored the situation for us."

:{{lang|la|nec m(i) au/rum pos/co nec /mi preti/um dede/ritis}}
:{{lang|la|non cau/ponan/tes bel/lum sed / bellige/rantes}}<ref>Ennius, ''Annales'' 194–5.</ref>
:"I do not demand gold for myself nor should you give me a price:
:not buying and selling war, but waging it"

or even lines starting with two short syllables{{r|raven1965|p=92}}:
:{{lang|la|melanu/rum, tur/dum, meru/lamqu(e) um/bramque ma/rinam}}<ref>Ennius, ''Varia 42V.''</ref>
: | u u – | – – | –, u u | – – | – u u | – –
:"the blacktail, the rainbow wrasse, the bird wrasse, and the maigre" (kinds of fish)

However, most of these features were abandoned by later writers or used only occasionally for special effect{{cn|date=March 2025}}.