Very rarely does he improperly shorten a naturally long vowel, _e.g. contra_ (twice); terminations in _o_ he invariably retains, except _ego_ and _modo_. The final _s_ is generally elided before a consonant when in the thesis of the foot, but often remains in the arsis (_e.g. plenu' fidei, Isque dies_). The two chief blots on his versification are his barbarous examples of tmesis,--_saxo cere comminuit brum: Massili portant invenes ad litora tanas_ (= cerebrum, Massilitanas), and his quaint apocope, _cael, gau, do_ (_caelum, gaudium, domum_), probably reflected from the Homeric _do, kri_, in which Lucilius imitates him, _e.g. nol._ (for _nolueris_). The caesura, which forms the chief feature in each verse, was not understood by Ennius. Several of his lines have no caesura at all; and that delicate alternation of its many varieties which charms us in Homer and Virgil, is foreign to the conception, as it would have been unattainable by the efforts, of the rugged epic bard. Nevertheless his labour achieved a great result. He stamped for centuries the character and almost the details of subsequent versification. [6] If we study the effect of his passages, we shall observe far greater power in single lines or sentences than in a continuous description. The solemn grandeur of some of his verses is unsurpassable, and, enshrined in the Aeneid, their dignity seems enhanced by their surroundings. Such are-- "Tuque pater Tiberine tuo cum ilumino sancto." "Unus homo nobis cunctando restituit rem." "Quae neque Dardaniis campis potuere perire Nec quom capta capi, nec quom combusta cremari, Augusto augurio postquam incluta condita Roma est." On the other hand he sometimes falls into pure prose; "Cives Romani tum facti sunt Campani,"