Dositheus the Grammarian (Δωσίθεος ὁ γραμματικός)

Life Dositheus was a Greek grammarian active in the 4th century CE. The 10th-century Byzantine encyclopedia, the Suda, mentions a grammarian of this name who authored a work on the eight parts of speech, though the attribution is not certain [1]. His career belongs to the late antique period, where grammatical education remained central to Greco-Roman paideia.

Works His sole definitive work is a bilingual Ars Grammatica, a grammatical manual presented in parallel Greek and Latin columns. It systematically covers the parts of speech, morphology, and syntax, functioning as a school text for language learners in the bilingual context of the later Roman Empire [2][3].

Significance Dositheus’s manual is a crucial artifact of late antique education, providing direct comparative evidence for contemporary Greek and Latin grammatical structures and terminology. Its format makes it a key source for understanding pedagogical methods, linguistic contact, and the history of grammar in the 4th-century Roman world [2][3].

Sources 1. Suda On Line (The Stoa Consortium): https://www.cs.uky.edu/~raphael/sol/sol-entries/delta/1340 2. Perseus Digital Library (Tufts University): http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.02.0133 3. ToposText (Aikaterini Laskaridis Foundation): https://topostext.org/work/206