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[15] The practice of joining e and i as in the Greek diphthong ει lasted longer: it served to distinguish cases and numbers, for which we may compare the instructions of Lucilius:
The boys are come: why then, their names must end
With e and i to make them more than one; and later—
If to a thief and liar (mendaci furique) you would give,
In e and i your thief must terminate.

But this addition of e is quite superfluous, since t can be long no less than short:

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