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

A Sixth-Century Fragment of the Letters of Pliny the Younger — Part 55

There may have been a copy (_P{ 2}_) intervening between _P{ 1}_ and _F_, but doubtless neither that nor _P{ 1}_ itself had lines so short as those in _P_; the error of _F_, therefore, may be most naturally ascribed to _P{ 1}_, who omitted a line of _P_.

A Sixth-Century Fragment of the Letters of Pliny the Younger — Part 55

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 _P{ 1}_ or _P{ 2}_. Perhaps two lines of _P_ were dropped.

A Sixth-Century Fragment of the Letters of Pliny the Younger — Part 55

Similarly we may note two omissions in _B_, though not in _F_, which may be due originally to the error of _P{ 1}_ 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 _P{ 1}_ dropped by _B_ in copying, but it is equally possible that _P{ 1}_ 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 _P{ 1}_.

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 _{ Pi}_ 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.