An example in Latin is the hymn Aeterne rerum conditor composed in the 4th century by St Ambrose, which begins: Aetérne rérum cónditór, noctém diémque quí regís, ... "Eternal Creator of (all) things, Who rulest the night and day" The two lines above consist of the following rhythm, and joined make a tetrameter: Latin poetry was quantitative, i.e. based on syllable length not stress accent, and in places the word-accent does not match the metrical accent (e.g. noctém and regís).
In Ambrose's hymn, there is a strong break at the end of each half of the tetrameter, so that it is usual to write the two halves of the verse on separate lines.
The iambic tetrameter was one of the metres used in the comedies of Plautus and Terence in the early period of Latin literature (2nd century BC).
The term iambic tetrameter was adopted to describe a similar metre in accentual-syllabic verse, as composed in English, German, Russian, and other languages.
A line of iambic tetrameter consists of four such feet in a row: (Christopher Marlowe, "The Passionate Shepherd to His Love") (Emanuel Schikaneder, libretto to The Magic Flute) (the opening line of Adon Olam, a traditional hymn of anonymous authorship from the Jewish liturgy.)