Editing Anceps (section)

==In Latin==
In Latin, in the metres of Roman comedy such as those of [[Plautus]], ''anceps'' syllables are even more common than in the Greek equivalents. In Plautus the [[iambic senarius]] (which is the equivalent of the Greek iambic trimeter) has this form:

:| x – x – | x – x – | x – u – |

The ''anceps'' elements, however, are not all equal, since the 2nd and 4th ''anceps'' elements, which are always short in Greek verse, tend to be short more frequently than the other ''ancipites''. These two are long in 60% of lines, the 1st and 3rd in 80% of lines, and the 5th in 90% of lines.<ref>Gratwick, A. S. (1993), ''Plautus: Menaechmi'', Cambridge University Press, p. 44.</ref> In the first two metrons, any of the long or ''anceps'' positions can be [[resolution (meter)|resolved]] into two short syllables, but this happens less frequently in ''anceps'' positions than in long ones.<ref>Moore, Timothy J. (2012), ''Music in Roman Comedy''. Cambridge University Press, p. 220.</ref>

Other metres which may have ''anceps'' positions in Latin are the bacchiac and cretic metres used in ''cantica'' (songs) in the plays of [[Plautus]]. For example, the bacchiac quaternarius is as follows:

:| x – – | x – – | x – – | x – – |

and the cretic as follows:

:| – x – | – u – || – x – | – u – |

The [[hendecasyllable]] metre used by [[Catullus]] and [[Martial]] has the following form, beginning in the same way as a glyconic line (see above):

:| x x | – u u – u – u – – |

The first two syllables are usually long, but occasionally in Catullus u – or – u is found.

However, in other metres of Latin poetry, ''anceps'' syllables do not occur (except for the usual possibility of [[brevis in longo]] at the end of the line). For example, in the dactylic hexameter, much use is made of ''[[biceps (prosody)|biceps]]'' syllables, but there is no ''anceps'' and no [[Resolution (meter)|resolution]]:

:| – <u>uu</u> | – <u>uu</u> | – <u>uu</u> | – <u>uu</u> | – uu | – x |

There is also a pure form of iambic, used in [[Catullus 4]], which also makes no use of ''anceps'' or resolution:

:| u – u – | u – u – | u – u – |