HYSTERON PROTERON, in grammar and rhetoric, a species of the hyperbaton, wherein the proper order of construction is so inverted, as that the part of any sentence which should naturally come first is placed last; as in this of Terence, valet & vivit, for vivit & valet; and in the following of Virgil, moriatur & in media arma ruamus, for in media arma ruamus & moriamur.