ABSTRACT
In choosing the First Epode as the author's example in order to delineate some principles in the matter, an important motive has been to see in practice and exemplorum gratia the challenges confronting an editor. A full survey of conjectures from the start of the printing era until the present day, however, is an indispensable prerequisite for any critical editing of a classical text, no less so than a complete catalogue is necessary to the user of a library. That few scholars have so far given priority to the matter should not be normative for future priorities among scholars. The drawbacks and calamities following in the wake of ignorance are, of course, difficult to measure like any contra-factual evaluation.
