Abstract

A close reading of a chapter of Gellius’ Noctes Atticae on the quantity of prefixes reveals that the two prose quotations from the elder Cato, which seem to be inappropriate in a discussion that otherwise consists of nothing but poetic examples, are in fact not at all out of place, since Cato himself offered poetic material in these quotations. Through this, two fragments of Old Latin poetry can be recovered. The first, the ending of a hexameter, is probably taken from a satiric context. The content of the second fragment, an iambic octonarius, may indicate occasional poetry.