The golden line is a type of Latin dactylic hexameter. It is often discussed in Latin classrooms and in modern studies of Latin poetry. However, it seems that the golden line first began as a poetry writing activity in schools during early modern Britain.

Definition

The term "golden line" has many definitions, but most follow the earliest known definition from Burles' Latin grammar in 1652. These lines have a structure called abVAB, where two adjectives come first and two nouns come last, arranged in a special way. For example, "Pendula" describes "bractea," and "flaventem" describes "crenim."

An example from Virgil’s Aeneid 4.139 translates word-by-word to "golden purple fastens clasp cloak." In Latin, word endings show how words connect, while English uses word order. A Latin reader would understand that "golden" and "clasp" are connected even though they are far apart.

The term "golden line" began in Britain as an exercise for writing Latin poetry. The first known use, called "aureus versus," appears in a footnote by John Owen in 1612. The definition from 1652 is in a rare Latin textbook published in England, which only four copies still exist. The term was mentioned in about a dozen sources between 1612 and 1900, including some American and British Latin grammar books. Scholars outside English-speaking countries only began discussing the "golden line" after 1955. It is not in any modern Latin grammar or metric guides, except for Mahoney’s online overview and Panhuis’s Latin grammar.

The term "golden line" did not exist in ancient times. Classical poets likely did not aim to create them, though similar structures called "teres versus" are discussed in history. S. E. Winbolt, a detailed scholar on the topic, explained that the "golden line" is an extreme example of a common Latin poetic pattern called "hyperbaton," where adjectives often come first and nouns are placed for emphasis.

There are about ten different definitions of the "golden line." Some scholars give clear rules, while others share lists of examples, leaving readers to guess the criteria. Burles’ 1652 definition clearly describes the abVAB structure, but many scholars also include lines with a similar pattern called "chiastic."

John Dryden, a poet, humorously described the "golden line" as having two adjectives, two nouns, and a verb in the middle to "keep the peace." Another scholar, Wilkinson, jokingly called a similar variation the "silver line." He also mentioned a "bronze line," but this term is rarely used.

Scholars disagree on what qualifies as a "golden line." Most exclude variations where nouns come before the verb (e.g., aBVAb, AbVaB, ABVab) or "silver lines" (aBVbA, AbVBa, ABVba). Some include extra words like prepositions, adverbs, or exclamations. For example, Orchard, a scholar, lists examples from Aldhelm’s Carmen de virginitate that include relative pronouns, prepositions, conjunctions, exclamations, and adverbs. He also allows extra adjectives, such as in "Haec suprema," and includes "silver lines." He excludes lines where nouns come first or where the order is mixed. He accepts participles as the verb in the middle but does not include a specific example with a periphrastic verb form.

Use by classical poets

Statistics show some long-term trends in the use of the golden line. The following statistical tables are based on one scholar's definitions of golden and "silver" lines (the tables are from Mayer (2002) with additions of Juvenal, Calpurnius, and Nemesianus from Heikkinen). Table 1 gives the totals for the golden and silver lines in classical poetry, listed in approximate chronological order from Catullus to Statius. Table 2 gives similar figures for a few poets in late antiquity, while Table 3 gives figures for a selection of early medieval poems from the fifth to tenth centuries.

In all three tables, the first column is the total number of verses in the work in question, followed by the number of "golden lines" and "silver lines" in the work. The last three columns give the percentage of golden and silver lines in respect to the total number of verses. Aside from a few exceptions, only poems with more than 200 lines are included, since in shorter poems the percentage figures are arbitrary and can be quite high. See, for example, the combined percentage of 14.29 in the Apocolocyntosis. Other short poems that are not included on the tables, such as the Copa, Moretum, Lydia, and Einsiedeln Eclogues, have rather high combined percentages between 3.45 and 5.26.

Table 1: Golden and Silver Lines in Classical Poetry

From Table 1 it appears that golden and silver lines occur in varying frequencies throughout the classical period, even within the corpus of a single author. There are no Latin golden or silver lines before Catullus, who uses them in poem 64 to an extent almost unparalleled in classical literature. Lucretius has a few examples. Horace has about 1 in every 300 lines, as does Virgil's Aeneid. Virgil's earlier works have a higher percentage. Ovid and Lucan use the golden line about once in every 100 lines. The high percentage of golden lines found in the Laus Pisonis and other works of the Neronian period has led some scholars to claim that the form is a mark of Neronian aesthetics. While several scholars have claimed that the golden line is mainly used to close periods and descriptions, the poems do not seem to bear this out.

Heikkinen makes the case that the golden line was a conscious feature of classical Latin pastoral poetry, as shown by the high percentages in Vergil's, Calpurnius's, and Nemesianus's Eclogues. However, statistics cannot prove that the golden line was a recognized form of classical poetics.

Table 2: Golden Lines in Selected Late Antique Poetry

As Table 2 shows, in late antiquity the use of golden lines remains within the general range found in classical times. Of particular interest is their use by Claudian. On average the golden line is found in every 50 lines of Claudian, but there are considerable differences between works. Table 2 gives his poem with the lowest percentage (On Honorius's Fourth Consulship) and that with the highest (On Honorius's Third Consulship).

Figurative poetry, such as that of Publilius Optatianus Porfyrius and, in Carolingian times, that of Hrabanus Maurus, rarely uses the golden line. These poets use a variety of hexameters praised by Diomedes: rhopalic verses, echo verses, and reciprocal verses. They use the golden line only once or twice, possibly because the form is rather elementary compared to their usual pyrotechnic displays.

Use by medieval poets

Table 3: Golden lines in some early medieval poetry

Table 3 shows some interesting patterns in the use of golden lines in early medieval poetry. It has long been observed that Caelius Sedulius, Aldhelm, and the Hisperica Famina strongly favor the golden line form. Corippus, a sixth-century poet, also uses the golden line much more than classical authors. However, there is no similar increase in the use of silver lines. In fact, these authors use silver lines less often. This trend might be because poets began to prefer leonine rhymes, which work well with the golden line structure but not with the silver line. Another pattern is that Corippus, Sedulius, Aldhelm, and Walther de Speyer often place a large number of golden lines at the beginning of their works, but not later in the poems. Some scholars only counted golden lines at the start of these poems, which might have led to higher numbers than actual. For example, in the first 500 lines of Aldhelm’s Carmen de virginitate, there are 42 golden lines and 7 silver lines, which is 8.4% and 1.4% respectively. In the last 500 lines (2405–2904), there are only 20 golden lines and 4 silver lines, or 4% and 0.8%—a drop by half. Corippus’s Ioannis and Sedulius’s Paschale show even sharper declines. These uneven percentages may suggest that the golden line was an ideal poets aimed for, but one they could not maintain throughout long poems.

Another possible reason for the reduced use of golden lines later in a poet’s work (seen even in Virgil; see Table 1) is that poets may have gradually moved away from the form as they gained experience. The golden line might have been taught in schools as a quick way to achieve elegance, which poets used less as they became more skilled. Two poems that seem to be early works support this idea. The Hisperica Famina is a strange text from seventh-century Ireland that appears to be a collection of school exercises on set themes. Of its 612 lines, 144—23.53%—follow the golden line structure. Most of the other lines are either too short (with only three words) or too long. These irregular lengths suggest the poem was not written in hexameter. It may have used a rough stress-based meter, but this is uncertain. However, the golden line seems to have been the model the poets aimed for. Walther de Speyer wrote his poem about St. Christopher in 984 when he was seventeen. His poem has a high number of golden lines, but also many lines that almost fit the pattern. Reading Walther’s work gives the impression that he was taught in school to write golden lines.

The high number of golden lines in poetry from the sixth to ninth centuries may reflect several trends, such as the use of hyperbaton and the growing popularity of leonine rhymes. The statistics cannot prove whether the golden line was ever taught or practiced as a separate form. Even if the golden line was not a deliberate poetic technique in the classical or medieval periods, it might still be useful today as a term for analyzing such poetry. However, the form now appears in important English commentaries about authors from Callimachus to Aldhelm. Most scholars who refer to the golden line today treat it as an important poetic form with clear historical roots.

History

The first person to mention the golden line may be the grammarian Diomedes Grammaticus, in a list of types of Latin hexameters in his work Ars grammatica. This work was written before 500 CE, and some scholars think he wrote it after 350 CE. Diomedes' chapter titled "De pedibus metricis sive significationum industria" (Keil 498-500) describes the teres versus, which has been identified by del Castillo (p. 133) as the golden line.

The example verse is a golden line. However, it is hard to understand what "conjoin a fluent and contiguous phrase" (volubilem et cohaerentem continuant dictionem) means and how it applies to this verse. None of the other ancient metricians use the term teres versus or its Greek equivalent, κυκλοτερεῖς. The only other commentator to mention the teres versus was the Renaissance scholar Julius Caesar Scaliger (1484–1558), who did not seem to understand Diomedes. In his book Poetices Libri Septem (1964 Stuttgart facsimile reprint of the 1561 Lyon edition, p. 71-72, text in Mayer), Scaliger offers a confusing attempt to explain Diomedes. He mentions that "Quintilian and others" refer to this as a teres versus:

Our manuscripts of Quintilian do not include this verse from Virgil, but it is the first pure golden line in Virgil and becomes the most famous golden line citation. Scaliger's use of this example shows that someone between Diomedes and him connected the term teres versus to the modern idea of a golden line.

The English interest in the golden line seems to begin with Bede. Bede supported a double hyperbaton and placing adjectives before nouns. In examples from each rule (double hyperbaton and adjectives before nouns), Bede includes at least one golden line. However, his other examples show he did not limit these rules to the golden line.

Bede's remarks in his De arte metrica were repeated and made stricter by Renaissance guides to versification, eventually leading to Burles's description of the golden line. The earliest example is the 1484 De arte metrificandi by Jacob Wimpfeling:

Two years later, Ars Versificandi by Conrad Celtes followed Wimpfeling:

In 1512, Johannes Despauterius quoted Celts's remarks exactly in his Ars versificatoria in the section De componendis carminibus praecepta generalia, and then more narrowly defined excellence in hexameters in the section De carmine elegiaco:

Despauterius combines Bede's two rules into one general rule about elegance: Two adjectives should be placed before two substantives, with the first agreeing with the first. This is not exactly the golden line, as there is no verb in the middle. However, Despauterius quotes the famous golden line example, Eclogue 2.50, as a good example of this type. This line is the first pure golden line in Virgil's works. It is also the example line given by Scaliger above. The same general remarks about epithets appear in John Clarke's 1633 Manu-ductio ad Artem Carmificam seu Dux Poeticus (345):

The source of Clarke's first example line is unknown, but the same line is also one of Burles's examples of the golden line. Burles's discussion of the golden line is clearly based on this tradition about the placement of epithets. Burles's golden line is a narrow use of the principles outlined by Bede nearly a thousand years earlier.

The earliest mentions of the golden line, such as those by Burles, appear in British guides for composing Latin verses. It seems the term comes from school assignments in 17th-century Britain and possibly earlier.

Scholars often believe their critical approaches to classical poetry are direct and immediate, understanding classical literature in its own context or from their own perspectives. However, the use of "the golden line" as a critical term in modern scholarship shows the influence of the tradition of criticism between Diomedes and today. The golden line may have originally been the teres versus of Diomedes, but this does not justify its use as a critical term today. No modern commentators count up versus inlibati, iniuges, quinquipartes, or other unusual forms listed by Diomedes.

More interesting than the golden line's appearance in ancient and medieval poetry is its use by modern critics. Today, major works and commentaries on canonical poets in Latin and Greek discuss them in relation to the golden line, and sometimes the silver line. Examples include Neil Hopkinson's Callimachus, William Anderson's Metamorphoses, Richard Thomas's Georgics, Alan Cameron's Claudian, and Andy Orchard's Aldhelm. Most of these critics assume or imply that golden lines were deliberate poetic devices practiced since Hellenistic times and carefully created by the poets. This process of searching canonical texts for special verse forms follows the spirit of ancient lists by Servius, Victorinus, and Diomedes Grammaticus. In a curious way, the complex wordplay that fascinated ancient grammarians has, at least in the English-speaking world, returned to help interpret and explain the central works of the classical canon.

In non-English scholarship

English-speaking scholars have used the term "golden line" since 1612. However, non-English-speaking scholars first mentioned the term around 1955. When non-English-speaking scholars write about the golden line, they often use the English word "golden line" in their work. Examples include Munari (1955:53-4), Hernández Vista (1963), Thraede (p. 51), Baños (p. 762), and Hellegouarc'h (p. 277). Scholars like Baños, Enríquez, and Hellegouarc'h only refer to English scholars such as Wilkinson for discussions about the term. For example, the French article by Kerlouégan discusses the form but never uses the term "golden line." Scholars in all languages use the English term "golden line" with translations such as "verso áureo" (Spanish, first used in 1961), "verso aureo" (Italian, 1974), "goldene Zeile" (German, 1977), "vers d’or" (French, 1997), "goldener Vers" (German, 1997), "gouden vers" (Dutch, 1998), "goue versreels" (Afrikaans, 2001), "χρυσóς στíχος" (Greek, 2003), "Золотой стих" (Russian, 2004), "zlaté verše" (Slovak, 2007), "verso dourado" (Portuguese, 2009), and "vers d’or" (Catalan, 2013). However, in most non-English scholarship (and by non-native English speakers), the term "versus aureus" is most commonly used.

Works cited include:
– 1955: Munari, p. 53-4
– 1963: Hernández Vista
– 1974: Smolenaars, p. 37
– 1977: Thraede, p. 51; Enríquez, p. 92; Echave-Sustaeta, p. 92
– 1978: Ravenna, p. 1118; Xavier, p. 53
– 1987: Hellegouarc'h, p. 261–281
– 1988: Enríquez, doctoral thesis
– 1990: del Castillo Herrera, connects Diomedes' "teres versus" with "áureo verso"
– 1992: Baños, p. 762–744
– 1993: Delhey, p. 86 (mentions "silver lines")
– 1994: Smolenaars, p. 37
– 1995: Navarro Antolín, p. 381
– 1998: Panhuis, p. 37 ("gouden, zilveren, en bronzen vers")
– 1999: Enríquez, p. 327–340
– 2000: Schmitz, p. 148–9
– 2003: Abdel-gayed Mohamed, p. 88–94 ("Seit Dryden bezeichnet man das betreffende Schema als golden line")
– 2004: Grüner, p. 88–94; Di Lorenzo, "L'esametro greco"