Textus Originalis
PRAEFATIO.
libris corrigi potuerunt; contra eius opera scriptura saepius ita corrupta est, ut quid manu prima exaratum et correctum sit, vix perspici possit. Raro enim eius artificia tam dilucida sunt, veluti XI 5, 5 χρησιμώτεροι μετὰ τῶν ὅπλων ἔσονται, ubi in P prima manu scriptum erat χρησιμώτεροι μὲν τῶν ὅπλων, quod vitium Gregorius auxit corrigens χρησιμώτεροι μὲν τῶν λοιπῶν aut XII 27, 3, ubi Gregorius manu inerti simplicem lectionem ῥᾳδίως τὲ κράτησαν (i. e. τ᾿ ἐκράτησαν) τῆς Σάμου καὶ τούς ita depravavit: ῥᾳδίως τε κρατήσαντες τῆς Σάμου τούς (cf. XII 84, 3). Neque minus perverse addidit XI 55, 5 et 81, 5 μή; XII 57, 1 pro φιλοτιμία inscite scripsit φιλονικία. Res eo fit obscurior, quod correcturae inveniuntur, quae iudice Bergmanno neque ad principem librarium neque ad Gregorium referendae sunt. Quod ad scripturae genus attinet, hic commemorasse satis habeo: 1. Hiatum evitandi causa in codice P multo saepius vocales elisae sunt quam in ceteris libris, quamquam permulti restant loci, ubi hiatus elisione sublatus non est; quin etiam aliquotiens vocales in codice P exaratae sunt, quae in ceteris libris propter hiatum sunt deletae. Multa horum pusillorum discriminum sine dubio inde orta sunt, quod syllabae modo compendiose modo plane scribebantur. 2. Ν ἐφελκυστικὸν saepissime etiam ante consonantes positum est, quamvis impiger his locis in littera ν delenda fuerit posterior librarius, ut videtur, idem Gregorius. 3. Ἰῶτα προσγεγραμμένον non ita raro invenitur et in exeunti et in medio vocabulo: veluti Bergmann in libro XI collegit 65 exempla; plerumque tamen est omissum.
Traduzione
English — scholarly
ARETHE Knowledge Engineering DivisionPREFACE.
books; on the contrary, by his work the writing was so often corrupted that what was written and corrected by the first hand can scarcely be discerned. For rarely are his handiworks so clear, as for instance XI 5, 5 χρησιμώτεροι μετὰ τῶν ὅπλων ἔσονται, where in P the first hand had written χρησιμώτεροι μὲν τῶν ὅπλων, which error Gregory increased by correcting to χρησιμώτεροι μὲν τῶν λοιπῶν; or XII 27, 3, where Gregory with a clumsy hand so debased the simple reading ῥᾳδίως τὲ κράτησαν (i.e. τ᾿ ἐκράτησαν) τῆς Σάμου καὶ τούς into: ῥᾳδίως τε κρατήσαντες τῆς Σάμου τούς (cf. XII 84, 3). No less perversely did he add at XI 55, 5 and 81, 5 μή; at XII 57, 1 he ignorantly wrote φιλονικία for φιλοτιμία. The matter is made more obscure by the fact that corrections are found which, in Bergmann's judgment, are to be attributed neither to the principal scribe nor to Gregory. As for the type of script, I consider it sufficient to have mentioned here: 1. For the sake of avoiding hiatus, vowels are elided in codex P much more often than in the other books, although very many places remain where hiatus has not been removed by elision; indeed, even occasionally vowels appear in codex P which in the other books are deleted due to hiatus. Many of these minute differences undoubtedly arose from the fact that syllables were sometimes written in abbreviated form, sometimes in full. 2. Ν ἐφελκυστικόν is very often placed even before consonants, although a later scribe, apparently the same Gregory, was active in deleting the letter ν in these places. 3. Ἰῶτα προσγεγραμμένον is found not so rarely both at the end and in the middle of a word: for instance, Bergmann collected 65 examples in Book XI; for the most part, however, it is omitted.
Commentario Arethe
Ν ἐφελκυστικόν... even before consonants
Nu ephelkystikon (ν ἐφελκυστικόν, 'the ν dragged along') is a paragogic -ν added to certain Greek verb forms, datives, and the word εἴκοσι before vowels to avoid hiatus. In codex P, this ν appears even before consonants, which would be non-standard in classical Attic. However, this is not necessarily an error — inscriptional evidence from 100–30 BC (exactly Diodorus' era, c. 90–30 BC) shows the same practice. This means P may preserve a genuine feature of Hellenistic Greek orthography, not a scribal idiosyncrasy. A later corrector (probably Gregory) systematically deleted many of these ν's.
Ἰῶτα προσγεγραμμένον
Iota adscript (ἰῶτα προσγεγραμμένον, 'written beside') refers to the practice of writing the iota of long diphthongs (ᾳ, ῃ, ῳ) next to rather than beneath the vowel. In codex P, Bergmann found 65 examples in Book XI alone, though it is 'for the most part omitted.' The presence of iota adscript (rather than the later iota subscript, ᾳ → ᾳ) in a 10th/11th-century manuscript is noteworthy: it suggests the scribe was copying from an earlier exemplar that still used the older convention, or was himself trained in a scriptorium that preserved this practice.