HYSTERON PROTERON, in Grammar and Rhetoric, a species of the hyperbaton, in which the proper order of construction is so inverted, that the part of any sentence which should naturally come first is placed last. Thus in Terence, Valet et vivit, for vivit et valet; and in Virgil, Moriamur, et in media arma ruamus, for In media arma ruamus, et moriamur.