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.

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.

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

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.

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: