And Priscian declares:

[Keil. v. II. p. 13.] Quamvis in varia figura et vario nomine sint k et
q et c, tamen quia unam vim habent tarn in metre quam in sono, pro una
littera accipi debent.

Without the best of evidence we should hardly believe that words written
indifferently with ae or e after C would be so differently pronounced by
those using the diphthong and those using, the simple vowel, that, to
take the instance already given, in the time of Lucilius, the rustic
said _Sesilius_ for _Kaekilius_. Nor does it seem probable that in
different cases the same word would vary so greatly, or that in the
numerous compounds where after c the a weakens to i the sound of the c
was also changed from k to s, as "kapio," "insipio"; "kado" "insido."

Quintilian, noting the changes of fashion in the sounding of the h,
enumerates, among other instances of excessive use of the aspirate, the
words _choronae_ (for _coronae), _chenturiones_ (for _centuriones_),
_praechones_ (for _praecones_), as if the three words were alike in
their initial sound.

Alluding to inscriptions (first volume), where we have _pulcher and
_pulcer_, _Gracchis_ and _Grams_, Mr. Munro says: "I do not well see how
the aspirate could have been attached to the c, if c had not a k sound,
or how in this case C before e or i could have differed from c before a,
o, u."

Professor Munro also cites an inscription (844 of the "Corpus Inscr.,"
vol. I.) bearing on the case in another way. In this inscription we have
the word _dekembres_. "This," says Mr. Munro, "is one of nearly two