ium virgarum_, _varius virgis_, _talos frangere_, _crux_,
_verberea statua_ (_Pseud._ 911); _gymnasium flagri_ (_Asin._ 297). Cf.
also _Epid._ 17,

'Quid ais? perpetuen valuisti?--Varie.'

From slave life come also terms of abuse like _volturius_, _scelus_,
_odium populi_, _mers mala_, _lapis_, _saxum_. Note that cruelty in the
treatment of slaves is peculiarly Roman; but their familiarity with
their masters and their general situation are from Greek life.

_Prosody._[12]--Plautine prosody, which reflected the variation of
quantity found in the popular speech, was not properly understood even
in Cicero's time.

Cf. Cic. _Or._ 184, 'Comicorum senarii propter similitudinem sermonis
sic saepe sunt abiecti ut non numquam vix in eis numerus et versus
intellegi possit.'

The chief points are as follows:

1. Final -s is often lost. _Rud._ 103,

'Pater, salveto, amboque adeo. Et tu salvos sis';

_Most._ 1124,

'Quoque modo dominum advenientem servos ludificatus sit.'

2. A mute followed by a liquid does not make the preceding vowel long.
Thus _agris_, _libros_, _duplex_, are iambi.

3. Iambic words may become pyrrhics, on account of the stress accent
on the first syllable. So _domi_ and _cave_ have the last syllable
short.[13] _Trin._ 868,

'Foris pultabo. Ad nostras aedis hic quidem habet rectam viam';

_Stich._ 99,

'Bonas ut aequomst facere facitis, quom tamen absentis viros.'

4. The stress accent sometimes causes final syllables to be dropped,
and so to have no effect on quantity, as in _enim_, _apud_, _quidem_,
_parum_, _soror_, _caput_, _amant_, _habent_, etc. _Trin._ 77,

'Qui in mentem venit tibi istaec dicta dicere?'

_Stich._ 18 (anapaestic),

'Haec res vitae me, soror, saturant.'

No shortening, however, takes place when the accent goes back to the
antepenult (cf. _contine_), nor in words like _aetas_, _mores_, where
the first syllable is long, nor even in _abi_, _tene_, _tace_, and the
like, when the chief accent is weakened, i.e., where these words are
pronounced slowly and emphatically (especially before a pause).
_Asin._ 543,

'Intro abi: nam te quidem edepol nihil est inpudentius.'

5. This influence of the chief accent affects also combinations of two
monosyllabic words which make an iambus, and combinations like _ego
illi_, _age ergo_, in which the second syllable of the second word is
elided. _Trin._ 354,

'Is est inmunis, quoi nihil est qui munus fungatur suom'