Pseudo-Dionysius Art of Rhetoric 8-11: Figured Speech, Declamation, and Criticism

This paper considers the date and authorship of chapters 8-11 of the Art of Rhetoric‚ falsely attributed to Dionysius of Halicarnassus. Analysis of the two chapters on "figured speech" suggests that chapter 9 is an unfinished attempt by the author of chapter 8 to rework the material into a more radical (but, in fact, conceptually flawed) refutation of those who rejected the concept. Distinctive common features indicate that chapters 10-11, on declamation and criticism, are by the same author. The texts probably date to the early second century A.D.; the author was perhaps the Aelius Sarapion attested in the Suda.