Editing Dionysius Thrax (section)

==Authorship==
Modern scepticism over the attribution is associated with the pioneering work of [[Vincenzo Di Benedetto]] in particular, though as early as 1822 [[Karl Wilhelm Göttling]], by analyzing the scholia on the text that had recently been collected and published by A. I. Bekker, concluded that the text as we have it was to be dated, not to the Hellenistic period but rather to the [[Byzantine Empire|Byzantine period]].{{sfn|Pfeiffer|1968|p=272}} Göttling's thesis convinced neither [[:de:Moritz Schmidt|Moritz Schmidt]] nor [[Gustav Uhlig]], and disappeared from view. In 1958/1959, Di Benedetto revived doubts by comparing the received text with ancient grammatical papyri that had since come to light.{{sfn|Di Benedetto|2007|pp=381–461}} He argued that before the 3rd to 4th centuries AD, no papyri on Greek grammar reveal material structured in a way similar to the exposition we have in Dionysius's treatise, that the surviving witnesses for the period before that late date, namely authors such as [[Sextus Empiricus]], [[Aelius Herodianus]], [[Apollonius Dyscolus]] and [[Quintilian]], fail to cite him, and that Dionysius's work only begins to receive explicit mention in the works written from the 5th century onwards by such scholars as [[Timotheus of Gaza]], [[Ammonius Hermiae]] and [[Priscian]].{{sfn|Pagani|2014|pp=206–207}} Di Benedetto concluded that only the first five paragraphs of the treatise came from Dionysius' hand.{{sfn|De Jonge|2008|p=92}}

Though initially rebuffed by scholars of the calibre of Pfeiffer and [[Hartmut Erbse]], Di Benedetto's argument has found general acceptance today among specialists.{{sfn|De Jonge|2008|p=92}}