Quintilian, Institutio Oratoria, Book 9, chapter 4, section 54

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[54] For these numeri, as he himself expressly asserts, are identical with rhythm, and he is followed in this by Virgil, who writes,

Numeros memini, si verba tenerem
Ecl. ix. 45. ¹

and Horace, who says,

Numerisquefertur
Lege solutis.
Odes. IV. ii. 11. ²

1 “I have the numbers, could I but find the words.” In this case the nearest translation of numeri would be “tune.” But, strictly speaking, it refers to the rhythm of the tune.

2 “And sweeps along in numbers free from laws.”

Quintilian. With An English Translation. Harold Edgeworth Butler. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1922.

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