ABSTRACT
There is a more important issue to be raised. Starting from Kilpatrick’s translation my problem is easy to see: “I accept the year conceded and, like the hairs from a horse’s tail, I pull at the rest a little at a time, taking one away and another one”. One can easily see that vellere is a verb well suited to go with pilos, whereas demere is apparently the vox propria to go with annum, which strongly suggests itself as the object to be supplied regardless of whether we should take permisso as ‘concession’ or as ‘year conceded’. The attractive corollary resulting from this easy surgery is, so to speak, the better life quality of the couplet. It now presents us with two clear and balanced examples of the sophism called sorites.
