Abstract

The article proposes a correction of a passage of Galen’s De indolentia, alternative to the one accepted so far. The correction ἐν ἓξ βιβλίοις is proposed, as alternative to the text hitherto accepted, itself due to a conjectural intervention, ἐν ἑξακισχιλίοις στίχοις : the manuscript Vlatadon 14 bears an impossible ἐν ἑξακισχιλίοις βιβλίοις. At issue is the length of the epitome made by Galen of the lexicographical works of Didymus on the terminology of ancient comedy. The paper argues that the error of the manuscript could be due to the habit of writing numerals as a single letter accompanied by an apex, and that, when referring to his own works, Galen normally uses the book as his unit of measurement. Finally, it is hypothesized that a length of six thousand stichoi might have been too short for an epitome of the work of Didymus.