"Aio te, Eacida, Romanes vincere posse."


Again in the commentaries on Donatus we find:

[Keil. v. IV. p. 421.] Plane sciendum est quod I inter duas posita
vocales in una parte orationis pro duabus est consonantibus, ut
_Troia_.

Priscian tells us that earlier it was, as we know, the custom to write
two I's:

[Keil. v. III. p. 467.] Antiqui solebant duas II scribere, et alteram
priori subjungere, alteram praeponere sequenti, ut _Troiia_, _Maiia_,
_Aiiax_.

And Quintilian says:

[Quint. I. iv. 11.] Sciat etiam Ciceroni placuisse _aiio Maiiam_ que
geminata I scribere.

This doubling of the sound of I, natural, even unavoidable, between
vowels, gives us the consonant effect (as vowel, uniting with the
preceding, as consonant, introducing the following, vowel).

K has the same sound as in English.

The grammarians generally agree that K is a superfluous, or at least
unnecessary, letter, its place being filled by C. Diomedes says: