In ancient Greek and Latin literature, the trochaic septenarius or trochaic tetrameter catalectic is one of two major forms of poetic metre based on the trochee as its dominant rhythmic unit, the other being much rarer trochaic octonarius. It is used in drama and less often in poetry. Together with the iambic senarius, it is one of the two most commonly used metres of Latin comedy. It has a long history dating back to the 7th century BC. | – x – x | – x – x || – x – x | – u – | Here – stands for a long element, x for an anceps (which could be long or short), and u for a short element.