Osservazioni sull’uso delle soluzioni anapestiche nei trimetri giambici di Filemone

This paper offers an exploratory study of anapaestic solutions in Philemon’s fragments, serving as an initial contribution to the understanding of his metrical style, an area that has yet to receive dedicated scholarly attention. The study is divided into two parts: the first addresses cases where the anapaestic solution occurs within a single word, while the second explores instances where the ana-paestic solution spans two or more words or parts of words, with a particular focus on the phenomenon of the so-called ‘split anapaest’. Building on previous scholarly work on this phenomenon, the paper examines each instance of split anapaest inPhilemon and argues that most of them can be considered normative. The exceptions to the norms suggest that this feature may play a role in constructing rhythm, or potentially in enhancing the coherence and meaning of the fragment.