SOURCE: "Demetrius the Stylist and Artemon the Compiler," The Phoenix, Vol. XVIII, No. 1, Spring, 1964, pp. 2-8.

In the following essay, Rist attempts to determine the date of composition of On Style by investigating Artemon, an editor of Aristotle's Letters mentioned by Demetrius.

The appearance of G.M.A. Grube's book¹ on Demetrius the Stylist has revived interest in the date of his work. Grube dates it at about 270 B.C. whereas G. P. Goold holds² that it was written in the Augustan Age. Such a discrepancy is disturbing; two hundred and fifty to three hundred years is a wide margin of error. This note therefore is intended to reduce the gap by an investigation of the Artemon who is described by Demetrius (223) as the editor of Aristotle's Letters. It seems that some progress may be possible here, although the matter has been quickly passed over by both Grube...