2. A syllable is short, if it contains a short vowel followed by a vowel or
by a single consonant; as, mea, amat.

3. Sometimes a syllable varies in quantity, _viz_. when its vowel is short
and is followed by a mute with l or r, i.e. by pl, cl, tl; pr, cr, tr,
etc.; as, ăgrī, volŭcris.[8] Such syllables are called _common_. In prose
they were regularly short, but in verse they might be treated as long at
the option of the poet.

NOTE.--These distinctions of _long_ and _short_ are not arbitrary and
artificial, but are purely natural. Thus, a syllable containing a short
vowel followed by two consonants, as ng, is long, because such a syllable
requires _more time_ for its pronunciation; while a syllable containing a
short vowel followed by one consonant is short, because it takes _less
time_ to pronounce it. In case of the common syllables, the mute and the
liquid blend so easily as to produce a combination which takes no more time
than a single consonant. Yet by separating the two elements (as ag-rī) the
poets were able to use such syllables as long.

ACCENT.

6. 1. Words of two syllables are accented upon the first; as, tégit,
mō´rem.

2. Words of more than two syllables are accented upon the penult (next to
the last) if that is a long syllable, otherwise upon the antepenult (second
from the last); as, amā´vī, amántis, míserum.

3. When the enclitics -que, -ne, -ve, -ce, -met, -dum are appended to