[p. 473] Ennius too spoke of rectos cupressos, or “straight cypresses,” contrary to the accepted gender of that word, in the following verse:
On cliffs the nodding pine and cypress straight. 1The sound of the word, I think, seemed to him stronger and more vigorous, if he said rectos cupressos rather than rectas. But, on the other hand, this same Ennius in the eighteenth book of his Annals 2 said aere fulva instead of fulvo, not merely because Homer said ἠέρα βαθεῖα, 3 but because this sound, I think, seemed more sonorous and agreeable. In the same way Marcus Cicero also thought it smoother and more polished to write, in his fifth Oration against Verres, 4 fretiu rather than freto. He says “divided by a narrow strait (fretu）”; for it would have been heavier and more archaic to say perangusto freto. Also in his second Oration against Verres, making use of a like rhythm, he said 5 “by an evident sin,” using peccatu instead of peccato; for I find this written in one or two of Tiro's copies, of very trustworthy antiquity. These are Cicero's words: “No one lived in such a way that no part of his life was free from extreme disgrace, no one was detected in such manifest sin (peccatu) that while he had been shameless in committing it, he would seem even more shameless if he denied it.” Not only is the sound of this word more elegant in this passage, but the reason for using the word is definite and sound. For hic peccatus, equivalent to peccatio, is correct and good Latin, just as many of the early writers used incestus (criminal), not of the one who committed the crime, but of the crime
