I, Claudian: the syntactical and metrical alignment of ego in Claudian and his epic predecessors

Abstract This article provides an analysis of the syntactical and metrical alignment of the subject pronoun of the first person singular in Latin epic. Based on the observation that, due to its prosody, ego may only feature in a certain number of sedes within the dactylic hexameter line, a quantitative and qualitative argument is made for a careful distinction between emphatic and unstressed uses in relation to consistent patterns of metrical and syntactical collocation.