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In spite of numerous publications devoted to the ancient Italic verse, the study of the verbal art in some Venetic inscriptions has been largely neglected by scholars. This lack of attention paid to poetical features is in part closely tied to the obvious limitations in our understanding of the Venetic language: the rich harvest of new inscriptions contributed only marginally to improving our knowledge of the grammar and lexicon. However, according to a view first expressed by Aldo Luigi Prosdocimi (1972), a metrical structure can be discerned in two archaic texts from Lozzo Atestino and Pernumia / Cartura, dated by their letter-forms and the use of scriptio continua (without syllabic punctuation) to the sixth century BCE. Prosdocimi's proposal is corroborated not only by an internal analysis of the texts, but also by comparative evidence from the Paleo-Sabellian epigraphic records. Both the text from Lozzo Atestino and the South Picene inscription TE 2 (Bellante) consist of three groups of seven syllables (7+7+7). Whereas TE 2 exhibits clear alliterations in Anlaut, there are no repetitions of word initial sounds on the kantharos of Lozzo Atestino. Nevertheless, a Jakobsonian approach reveals (among other poetical properties of the text) that the vowel qualities ('timbres') of the first and third heptasyllables are arranged in a chiastic order, since the timbres [a-(o-o)-e-o-i-o] (alkomno metlon śikos) are mirrored in the last sequence horvionte donasan [o-i-o-e-o-(a-a)] (the correction *horeionte is unnecessary). The Venetic inscription from Pernumia / Cartura consists of three heptasyllabic sequences (each with a dative ending -oi in rhyming position) followed by a trisyllabic extension

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Syncope of a short vowel before a cluster sT(R) (T: stop; R: l or r) is attested in Latin and Sabellic: Latin fēstra (beside fenestra), sēstertius, iuxtā, Oscan vezkeí, minstreis, Umbrian etuřstamu, mersto. This phenomenon raises important questions both for the historical phonology of the Italic languages and for the typological study of sT(R)-clusters. In Latin and Sabellic, syncope normally took place only in open syllables. Three competing strategies are possible in order to explain this paradox. (i) It has been argued that the cluster sT(R) was an onset, which would imply that the vowel standing before the cluster sT(R) was in an open syllable at the time of the syncope. (ii) It has been proposed that the sequence sT behaves as a single consonant. (iii) It could be assumed that the syncope did not take place in a closed syllable except if the closing consonant was s (or its allophone z). Furthermore, a careful study of the relevant material shows that in some Latin words a vowel standing before sT(R) may have been deleted by a phonological process distinct from the syncope stricto sensu (haplology, noundinum-rule).

Romulus and Remus were twin brothers, but according to a curious statement by John Lydus, Romulus was younger than Remus. The gloss altellus Romulus dicebatur transmitted by Paul the Deacon suggests that the Byzantine scholar may have been preserving an old tradition. Although the form altellus has been interpreted in various ways, the likeliest explanation is that altellus goes back to *alter-elo-s and means 'the second of the twin brothers'. Of the twins, Remus was the first to be born. The word altellus is not related to altus 'high, tall' or alere 'nourish', despite the attempts of ancient authorities (and more recently the Christian cabalist Egidio da Viterbo) to buttress such an etymology. Moreover, a playful allusion to altellus can possibly be found in Ovid's Fasti (Romulus alter erit), which would confirm the reconstruction *alter-elo-s. As a result, the founder of Rome is not the elder brother. Scholars have emphasised that the biblical twins Esau and Jacob offer a close parallel, as Jacob, who may be regarded as the founder of Israel, was not the firstborn son. The parallel is even more striking if one pays attention to the fact that in the Book of Jubilees and the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, Esau was killed by his brother. The logic of these stories is ultimately based on a high degree of diagrammaticity or constructional iconicity between the order of the twins' births and their personal tropism: Esau (a hunter) and Remus are associated with a quite primitive way of life (elder brother: past), whereas Jacob and Romulus are characterised by metis and are presented as the bearers of a more advanced way of life (younger brother: modernity). The word altellus is rich in implications because it encapsulates the fact that the elder brother must be supplanted by his younger twin.