Note 2 — Chapter V · THE LITERARY CRITICISM OF RHETORIC

That it deals with this exclusively, not with composition in general, is clear from both the Greek title and the Latin. The terms σύνθεσις and compositio are technically specific. They do not mean style in general, which in the classical treatises includes also choice of single words (ἐκλογή, electio). Much less do they mean composition in our larger modern sense, for which the ancient term is dispositio, collocatio, or more generally οἰκονομία. Dionysius makes the distinction quite clear at the opening of his treatise, and holds to it throughout. In this sense is to be taken the title of the admirable translation of Rhys Roberts, Literary Composition, as is shown by his rendering elsewhere The Arrangement of Words (page 8 of his edition of Three Literary Letters).