Osservazioni su Philem. fr. 95 K.‑A. per la difesa del v. 2

Abstract

The present contribution aims to investigate, from the point of view of text and content, fr. 95 K.‑A. of the comic author Philemon. The fragment, which likely belonged to the prologue of a comedy of name unknown, is spoken by Aere (perhaps an allegory), which provides a self-presentation of traits that are para-philosophical and, specifically, Presocratic. Line 2 of the fragment has been condemned by all editors to date, but through an analysis of the fragment’s textual tradition, the line’s syntactic structure and the parodic implications, it is proposed here to retain the line. Finally, reflections are offered also on line 3, considering it in accord with the textual choices adopted in relation to the preceding line.