word-break after that anceps. The second anceps is free from this constraint, because a word-break at that point would be a main caesura. Resolution The Greek iambic trimeter allows resolution, allowing more variety. In tragedy, resolving the anceps elements is rare, except to accommodate a proper name, but resolution of the long elements is slightly more common. In comedy, which is closer to casual speech, resolution is fairly common. In both tragedy and comedy, though, the third metron is usually left alone; resolution in the final metron of the line is rare. In tragedy, resolutions are virtually never consecutive, and two instances in the same line are rare. When resolution occurs, the resulting two shorts are almost always within the same word-unit. Latin iambic senarius The iambic trimeter was imitated in Latin by 2nd century BC comic playwrights such as Plautus and Terence, where it is known as the iambic senarius. It is the most commonly used meter in their plays, especially in Terence, and it is the only meter which was used purely for dialogue without musical accompaniment. It was the preferred meter of the Roman fabulist Phaedrus in the first century AD. In Latin the basic meter was as follows: | x – x – | x – x – | x – u – | That is to say, the third and seventh elements, which were always short in Greek, were anceps (either long or short) in Latin; in fact they are long 60% of the time, while the Greek anceps syllables (the first, fifth, and ninth elements) are long in 80-90% of lines. As in the Greek trimeter, any long or anceps syllable except the last could be replaced with a double short syllable (u u). As in Greek, there was usually (though not always) a caesura (word-break) after the fifth element. An example of a Latin iambic senarius (from the prologue to Plautus' Aulularia) is the following: | – – – – | – – – – | – – u – | "In case anyone should wonder who I am, let me explain in a few words." A difference between Latin and Greek iambics was that the Latin senarius was partly accentual, that is to say the words were arranged in such a way that very often (especially in the first half of the verse), the word accents coincided with the strong points of