To Domitian Caesar (Martialls epigramma 1. 4) - Roman Poetry

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This epigram, as many other, is based on a meter called elegiac couplet.

The elegiac couplet contains two kinds of verses which alternates throughout the poem, be it a short epigram or a long elegy such as we find in Ovid, Propertius, and others.

The first verse is a dactylic hexameter. Is has six unities called 'feet' ('pedēs' in Latin). The first four are either spondees or dactyls, the fifth is almost always a dactyl, the last is a spondee or a trochee.

Spondee is the foot containing two long syllables: | sūmō |
Dactyl is the foot containing one long, two short: | sūmere |
Trochee is the foot containing one longe, one short: | sūme |

The reason why we may find a trochee at the end of the verse, is because the lenght of the last syllable doesn't affect the meter. This is why even though grammarians say that the last foot is a spondee we find a trochee there so often.

The second verse is a dactylic pentameter. This one is a bit more complex.
The first two feet are either spondees or dactyls. After them, we have half a foot, that is to say, a single syllable (always long). Then, either two dactyls or one spondee and one dactyl follow it. Finally we have another single syllable, which may be either long or short, since it is at the end of the verse.

This of the dactylic pentameter like this:
| - - | - - | - | - - | - u u | -
In which depiction the spondees can be replaced by dactyls and the last syllable could be short (u).