[1] The metre typically has resolution in the last metron, and often elsewhere, leading to a run of short syllables at the end.
An example is the first line of Catullus's poem 63: This metre was used for songs sung by galli (or gallae), eunuch devotees of the goddess Cybele, the ancient nature goddess of Anatolia, who was also known as the Mother of the Gods.
The galliambic metre in its most basic form (as shown in the first of the two Greek lines quoted below) consists of a catalectic ionic tetrameter: However, especially as used by Latin writers, the lines usually show anaclasis (syncopation), i.e. the reversal of the 4th and 5th element in each half, almost[3] always in the first half and usually also in the second.
Thus the complete scheme is as follows: Only two lines of galliambic poetry have survived from ancient Greek, quoted by the metrical writer Hephaestion.
[9] As the Galliambic meter admits substitutions of two short syllables for a long one, there are variations on how this verse is structured on different sentences.