the English S in _sing_, _hiss_.

In Greek words written also with Z, as _Smyrna_ (also written _Zmyrna_),
it probably had the Z sound, and possibly in a few Latin words, as
_rosa_, _miser_, but this is not certain. Marius Victorinus thus sets
forth the difference between S and X (CS):

[Keil. v. VI. p. 32.] Dehinc duae supremae, S et X, jure junguntur. Nam
vicino inter se sonore attracto sibilant rictu, ita tamen si prioris
ictus pone dentes excitatus ad medium lenis agitetur, sequentis autem
crasso spiritu hispidum sonet, quia per conjunctionem C et S, quarum et
locum implet et vim exprimit, ut sensu aurium ducemur, efficitur.

Donatus, according to Pompeius, complains of the Greeks as sounding the
S too feebly:

[Keil. v. V. p. 394.] Item S litteram Graeci exiliter ecferunt adeo ut
cum dicunt _jussit_ per unum S dicere existimas.

This would indicate that the Romans pronounced the sibilant distinctly,-
-yet not too emphatically, for Quintilian says, 'the master of his art
(of speaking) will not fondly prolong or dally with his S':

[Quint. I. xi. 6.] Ne illas quidem circa S litteram delicias hic
magister feret.

T is pronounced like the English T pure, except that the tongue should
approach the teeth more nearly.

[Pompei. _Comm. ad Donat._ Keil. v. VI. p. 32.] D autem et T, quibus,