Apart from a single poem of
Statius (
Silv. 4.5), the Alcaic stanza appears to have been used in Latin only by
Horace, who employed it in 37 of his 103
Odes. In Horace the Alcaic stanza takes this form: x – u – – : – u u – u – x – u – – : – u u – u – x – u – – – u – – – u u – u u – u – – (An "–" denotes a long syllable, "u" a short one, x is (long or short), and ":" is the caesura.) The first syllable in lines 1 to 3 is sometimes short (13 times in book 1), but usually long. The 5th syllable, unlike in Greek, is always long. There is almost always a word-break after the 5th syllable. – – u – : – – u u – u – Antehāc nefās dēprōmere Caecubum – – u – – : – u u – u– cellīs avītīs, dum Capitōliō – – u – – – u– – Rēgīna dēmentīs ruīnās – u u – u u– u – – fūnus et Imperiō parābat. (
Odes 1.37, lines 5-8) :'Before this it would have been a sin to bring out the
Caecuban :from our grandfathers' cellars, as long as the
Queen : was preparing mad ruin for the
Capitol : and a funeral for the Empire.' Certain developments can be observed in the Alcaic stanza over the course of the four books of Horace's
Odes. For example, the short syllable at the beginning of the first three lines becomes less frequent in the course of books 1 to 3 and is not found at all in Book 4. A notable feature of Horace's Alcaics is the heavy word which usually fills the centre of the 3rd line. The most common pattern is for the line to end with a polysyllable + trisyllable (e.g. ). This puts a word accent on the 5th syllable of the line, which occurs in 67% of the lines. Another form of the line is to end in a polysyllable + disyllable (e.g. ). This puts an accent on the 6th syllable of the line. It is uncommon at first (only 5% in book 1 and 6% in book 2) but becomes more common in the later books (25% in book 3 and 30% in book 4). A tetrasyllable ending in the 3rd line (e.g. ) or double disyllable ending (e.g. ), on the other hand, putting an accent on the 4th syllable of the line, is not common: only 7% in book 1, 8% in book 2; and not found at all in books 3 and 4. But 3rd lines ending with a monosyllable + trisyllable (e.g. ) seem more acceptable, and form 20% of lines in book 1, 15% in book 2, 7% in book 3, and 11% in book 4. ==Imitations in other languages==