amoebaea

Verses that answer one another alternately in strophe and antistrophe, as in some of Vergil's Eclogues, e. g. the Seventh, Eighth, and Ninth. The amoebaean form prevails also in some of the earlier specimens of Roman verse, as the songs of the Fratres Arvales (q.v.). It is only one of the many manifestations of the Italian liking for dialogue, on which see Teuffel, Hist. of Rom. Lit. 3. 3 (Engl. transl. by Warr [London, 1891]); and Patin, Études sur la Poésie Latine (Paris, 1875).