Accent (Gr. _prosodia_) implied that the pronunciation of the accented syllable was on a higher or lower note than the rest of the word. It was therefore a musical, not a quantitative symbol. The rules for its position are briefly as follows. No words but monosyllables or contracted forms have the accent on the last; dissyllables are therefore always accented on the first, and polysyllables on the first or second, according as the penultimate is short or long, _Lúcius, cecídi_. At the same time, old Latin was burdened with a vast number of suffixes with a long final vowel. The result of the non-accentuation of the last syllable was a continual tendency to slur over and so shorten these suffixes. And this tendency was carried in later times to such an extent as to make the quantity of all final vowels after a short syllable bearing the accent indifferent. There were therefore two opposing considerations which met the poet in his capacity of versifier. There was the desire to retain the accent of every- day life, and so make his language easy and natural, and the desire to conform to the true quantity, and so make it strictly correct. In the early poets this struggle of opposing principles is clearly seen. Many apparent anomalies in versification are due to the influence of accent over-riding quantity, and many again to the preservation of the original quantity in spite of the accent. Ennius harmonised with great skill the claims of both, doing little more violence to the natural accent in his elaborate system of quantity than was done by the Saturnian and comic poets with their fluctuating usage. [24] To apply these results to the Saturnian verses extant, let us select a few examples: "Gnaivód patré prognátus | fórtis vír sapiénsque." _patre_ or _patred_ retains its length by position, _i.e._ its metrical accent, against the natural accent _pátre_. In the case of syllables on which the _ictus_ does not fall the quantity and accent are indifferent. They are always counted as short, two syllables may stand instead of one-- per liquidum máre sudántes | dítem véxárant. or the unaccented syllable may be altogether omitted, as in the second half of the line-- "dítem véxárant." In a line of Naevius-- "Runcús atqué Purpúreus | fílií térras."