ATQ· ETIAMINUISUSUIRTUTIB·FUERATEUA (30) SITRELIQUITINCOLUMEMOPTIMUMATQ· (31)

The scribe could easily catch at the second ATQ· after writing the first. It will be at once objected that the repeated ATQ· might have occasioned the mistake, whatever the length of the line. Thus in 82, 2 (aegrotabat Caecina Paetus, maritus eius, aegrotabat] Caecina-- aegrotabat _om. BF_), the omitted portion comprises 34 letters--a bit too long, perhaps, for a line of _P_. The following instances, however, can not be thus disposed of.

A Sixth-Century Fragment of the Letters of Pliny the Younger — Part 54

94, 10 alia quamquam dignitate propemodum paria] quamquam--paria (32 letters) _om. BF_. _Cetera_ and _paria_, to be sure, offer a mild case of _homoioteleuta_, but not powerful enough to occasion an omission unless the words happened to stand at the ends of lines, as they might well have done in _P_. As the line occurs near the beginning of a letter, we may verify our conjecture by plotting the opening lines. The address, as in _{ Pi}_, would occupy a line. Then, allowing for contractions in _rebus_ (18) and _quoque_ (19) and reading _cum_ (Class I) for _quod_ (18), _cetera_ (Class I) for _alia_ (20), we can arrange the 236 letters in 8 lines, with an average of 29.5 letters in a line.

A Sixth-Century Fragment of the Letters of Pliny the Younger — Part 54

123, 10 sentiebant. interrogati a Nepote praetore quem docuissent, responderunt quem prius: interrogati an tunc gratis adfuisset, responderunt sex milibus] interrogati a Nepote--docuissent responderunt _om. BF_. Here are two good chances for omissions due to similar endings, as _interrogati_ and _responderunt_ are both repeated, but neither chance is taken by _BF_. Instead, a far less striking case (_sentiebant--responderunt_) leads to the omission. The arrangement in _P_ might be

A Sixth-Century Fragment of the Letters of Pliny the Younger — Part 54

SENTIEBANT INTERROGATIANEPOTEPRAETORE (26) QUEMDOCUISSENTRESPONDERUNT (26) QUEMPRIUSINTERROGATIANTUNCGRA (29) TISADFUISSETRESPONDERUNTSEXMI (29)

Here the dangerous words INTERROGATI and RESPONDERUNT are in safe places. SENTIEBANT and RESPONDERUNT, ordinarily a safe enough pair, become dangerous by their position at the end of lines; indeed, in the _scriptura continua_ the danger of confusing _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.