Simus inter exempla. Considerazioni sulla lacuna della Lettera 98 di Seneca

Owing to a problem of syntax, modern editors print Seneca’s Letter 98 with a lacuna between §§ 14 and 15. Nevertheless, the question is far from settled, as several scholars have suggested that the epistle may end with § 14 and that §§ 15-18 may be part of a different letter; even Reynolds’ edition, which prints Letter 98 as one epistle, takes this hypothesis into account. In this article, I maintain that Letter 98 is not made up of two letters, but it is indeed one epistle, and that arguments for separation are weak; in addition, I will advance hypotheses concerning the size, content, and origin of the lacuna. More precisely, I will suggest that the lacuna is relatively brief (one or two sentences at most), that its content may be by and large envisaged, and that it possibly originated in a saut du même au même.