[4] The most important writings upon it are those of Domenico Comparetti, _Iscriz. arcaica del Foro Romano_ (Florence-Rome, 1900); Hülsen, _Berl. philolog. Wochenschrift_ (1899), No. 40; and Thurneysen, _Rheinisches Museum_ (Neue Folge), iii. 2. Prof. G. Tropea gives a _Cronaca della discussione_ in a series of very useful articles in the _Rivista di storia antica_ (Messina, 1900 and 1901). Skutsch's article already cited puts the trustworthy results in an exceedingly brief compass.
[5] For further information see special articles on these authors, and LATIN LITERATURE.
[6] Cicero also refers to certain _scripta dulcissima_ of the son of Scipio Africanus Maior, which must have possessed some merits of style.
[7] The study of the rhythm of the _Clausulae_, i.e. of the last dozen (or half-dozen) syllables of a period in different Latin authors, has been remarkably developed in the last three years, and is of the highest importance for the criticism of Latin prose. It is only possible to refer to Th. Zielinski's _Das Clauselgesetz in Cicero's Reden_ (St. Petersburg, 1904), reviewed by A. C. Clark in _Classical Review_, 1905, p. 164, and to F. Skutsch's important comments in Vollmöller's _Jahresberichten über die Fortschritte der romanischen Philologie_ (1905) and _Glotta_ (i. 1908, esp. p. 413), also to A. C. Clark's _Fontes Prosae Numerosae_ (Oxford, 1909), _The Cursus in Mediaeval and Vulgar Latin_ (ibid. 1910), and article CICERO.
LATIN LITERATURE. The germs of an indigenous literature had existed at an early period in Rome and in the country districts of Italy, and they have an importance as indicating natural wants in the Italian race, which were ultimately satisfied by regular literary forms. The art of writing was first employed in the service of the state and of religion for books of ritual, treaties with other states, the laws of the Twelve Tables and the like. An approach to literature was made in the _Annales Maximi_, records of private families, funeral orations and inscriptions on busts and tombs such as those of the Scipios in the Appian Way. In the satisfaction they afforded to the commemorative and patriotic instincts they anticipated an office afterwards performed by the national epics and the works of regular historians. A still nearer approach to literature was probably made in oratory, as we learn from Cicero that the famous speech delivered by Appius Claudius Caecus against concluding peace with Pyrrhus (280 B.C.) was extant in his time. Appius also published a collection of moral maxims and reflections in verse. No other name associated with any form of literature belonging to the pre-literary age has been preserved by tradition.