Contemporary writers of English, and their readers, generally prefer short sentences. In older English, and in the works of Caesar and Cicero to name a few, long, complex sentences, with phrases and clauses in gropus of two and three, with anaphona, with asyndeton, and other rhetorical devices with the main thought not revealed until the end, were in great favor. The preceding sentence is an example of a periodic sentence. To tackle a periodic sentence, it is necessary to break the passage down into its natural parts.
For example: [Tu Iuppiter,] [qui isdem quibus haec urbs auspiciis] [a Romulo es constitutus,] [quem Statorem huius urbis atque imperi vere nominamus,] [hunc et huius socios] [a tuis ceterisque templis,] [a tectis urbis ac moenibus,] [a vita fortunisque civium omnium arcebis] [et homines bonorum inimicos,] [hostis patriae, latrones Italiae] [scelerum foedere inter se ac nefaria societate coniunctos] [aeternis suppliciis] [vivos mortuosque mactabis.]
-Cicero In Catilinam
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