Yet, he adds, the ancients did not always withdraw the sound:

Vetustissimi tamen non semper eam subtrahebant, Ennius in X Annalium:

"Insigneita fere tum milia militum octo Duxit delectos bellum tolerare
potentes."

The M was not, however, entirely ignored. Thus Quintilian says:

[Quint, IX. iv. 40.] Atqui eadem illa littera, quotiens ultima est et
vocalem verbi sequentis ita contingit ut in eam transire possit,
etiamsi scribitur tamen parum exprimitur, ut _multum ille_ et _quantum
erat_; adeo ut paene cujusdam novae litterae sonum reddat. Neque enim
eximitur, sed obscuratur, et tantum aliqua inter duas vocales velut
nota est, ne ipsae coeant.

It is a significant fact in this connection that M is the only one of
the liquids (semivowels) that does not allow a long vowel before it.
Priscian, mentioning several peculiarities of this semivowel, thus
speaks of this one:

[Priscian. Keil. v. II. p. 23.] Nunquam tamen eadem M ante se natura
longam (vocalem) patitur in eadem syllaba esse, ut _illam_, _artem_,
_puppim_, _illum_, _rem_, _spem_, _diem_, cum aliae omnes semivocales
hoc habent, ut _Maecenas_, _Paean_, _sol_, _pax_, _par_.

That the M was really sounded we may infer from Pompeius (on Donatus)
where, treating of _myotacism_, he calls it the careless pronunciation
of M between two vowels (at the end of one word and the beginning of
another), the running of the words together in such a way that M seems