DOSITHEUS MAGISTER  ,

Greek grammarian, flourished at Rome in the 4th century A.D . He was the author of a Greek translation of a Latin grammar, intended to assist the Greek-speaking inhabitants of the empire in learning Latin . The translation, at first word for word, becomes less frequent, and finally is discontinued altogether . The Latin grammar used was based on the same authorities as those of Charisius and Diomedes, which accounts for the many points of similarity . Dositheus contributed very little of his own . Some Greek-Latin exercises by an unknown writer of the 3rd century, to be learnt by heart and translated, were added to the grammar . They are of considerable value as illustrating the social life of the period and the history of the Latin language . Of these `Ep,unvevµara (Inter pretamenta) , the third book, containing a collection of words and phrases from everyday conversation (KaOlµeptvil 6 uXia) has been preserved . A further appendix consisted of Anecdotes, Letters and Rescripts of the emperor Hadrian; fables of Aesop; extracts from Hyginus; a history of the Trojan War, abridged from the Iliad; and a legal fragment, Hepi iX vOepiavewv We manumissionibus) . Editions: Grammatica in H . Keil, Grammatici Latini, vii. and separately (1871) ; Hermeneumata by G . Getz (1892) (in G .

Lowe's Corpus glossariorum Latinorum, iii.) and E . Becking (1832), which contains the appendix' (including the legal fragment) ; see also C . Lachmann, Versuch fiber Dositheus (1839) ; H . Hagen, De Dosithei magistri quae feruntur glossis (1877) .