homoioteleuta
, unless these stand at the end of lines, is distinctly less than in a script in which the words are divided. Here again, as in 94, 10, we may reckon the lengths of the opening lines of the letter. After the line occupied with the addresses, we have 296 letters, or ten lines with an average of 29.6 letters apiece.
We may add two omissions of F in passages now missing altogether in B. 69, 28 quod minorem ex liberis duobus amisit sed maiorem] minorem—sed om. F. Here again an omission is imminent from the similar endings minorem—maiorem; that made by F (29 letters and one dot) seems to be that of a line of P where the arrangement would be:
| QUOD |
|
MINOREMEXLIBERISDUOB·AMISITSED MAIOREM |
There may have been a copy (P2) intervening between P1 and F, but doubtless neither that nor P1 itself had lines so short as those in P; the error of F, therefore, may be most naturally ascribed to P1, who omitted a line of P.
130, 16 percolui. in summa (cur enim non aperiam tibi vel iudicium meum vel errorem?) primum ego] in summa—primum (59 letters) om. F. As there are no homoioteleuta here at all, we surely are concerned with the omission of a line or lines. Perhaps 59 letters would make up a line in P1 or P2. Perhaps two lines of P were dropped.
Similarly we may note two omissions in B, though not in F, which may be due originally to the error of P1 in copying P.
68, 5 electorumque commentarios centum sexaginta mihi reliquit, opisthographos] -torumque—opisthographos om. B. Allowing the abbreviation of que, we have 59 letters and one dot here. The omitted words are written by the first hand of B at the foot of the page. Of course the omission may correspond to a line of P1 dropped by B in copying, but it is equally possible that P1 committed the error and corrected it by the marginal supplement, F noting the correction in time to include the omitted words in his text, B copying them in the margin as he found them in P1.
87, 12 tacitus suffragiis impudentia inrepat. nam quoto cuique eadem honestatis] suffragiis—honestatis om. m. 1, add. in mg. m. 2 B (54 letters, with que abbreviated). This may be like the preceding, except that the correction was done not by the original scribe of B, but by a scribe in the same monastery. The presence of homoioteleuta, we must admit, adds an element of uncertainty.
So, of the passages here brought forward, 94, 20; 123, 10 and 69, 28 are best explained by supposing that B and F descend from a manuscript that like Π had from 24 to 32 letters in a line, while 32, 19 and 130, 16 fit this supposition as well as they do any other.