Abstract
The article deals with the problem of what part the selection of words plays in On literary composition by Dionysius of Halicarnassus which was planned to be a monograph dealing exclusively with another part of style: the arrangement of words. Surely, there are some points concerning the selection as it is referred to by some modern scholars.
However, it is not necessary to consider such notes by Dionysius as a divergence from his purpose. Since neither the composition nor the selection of words are for Dionysius parts of literary style which could be completely isolated from each other.
They are two different and incompatible perspectives, two independent theoretical standpoints of aesthetic appreciation concerning partly some entirely different features of the literal style, partly some identical ones but from different and independent perspectives.