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Here It looks like this:

[980α] [21]...ἄνθρ...[25]...τοῖς δ᾽...[980β][21]...[981α] [1] καὶ δοκεῖ ... φησὶ Πῶλος, ἡ [5] δ᾽ ἀπειρία ... ἐστίν: [10] ...

I get that the 980α and the like are section numbers, but I'm not sure what the other one like [21] is. The book starts at 21, maybe that means it's starting at line 21 and something is missing at the beginning, I'm not sure. Wondering what it means.

Also wondering what the "section" means. Here they have books and chapters, not sure why these sections are numbered like this.

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  • No source at hand, though consulting Aristotle's Metaphysics, ed. W.D. Ross wouldn't be a bad idea, but they are steadily increasing and might be page and line numbers.
    – user18968
    Commented Oct 23, 2018 at 3:43

1 Answer 1

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Alpha and beta seem obverse and reverse of pages. If that text starts 980a it is probably in a compilation of many works. [1] is line number. Your text starts on the obverse of page 980 at line 21.

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  • Yay thank you so much, so basically it's not relevant for the actual text :D
    – Lance Pollard
    Commented Oct 23, 2018 at 7:19
  • 2
    If there’s a debate over what constitutes the text, and which manuscripts are reliable, then it is pretty useful. If you’re reading it as a reliable Greek version, less useful to you, but it does make citation easier.
    – Samuel Russell
    Commented Oct 23, 2018 at 7:21

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