Arithmêtikê stoicheiôsis: On Diophantus and Hero of Alexandria (Q2367152)

The author argues that the `Definitions', now commonly attributed to Hero of Alexandria, were written by Diophantus. This attribution, he says, has implications for the dating of Diophantus. The prefaces to the `Arithmetica' written by Diophantus and the `Definitiones' assigned by the author to Diophantus are addressed to individuals with the same name, Dionysius. About these two ``Dionysius'' the author remarks, that the identification of Dionysius must remain conjectural. I cannot follow the author's reasoning when he says: If one assumes Hero's authorship of the `Definitiones' (the author, however, is arguing, that this is not the case), as is generally the case, conflating the dedicatees would place Hero and Diophantus at around the same time. I cannot understand why it might be possible for Diophantus to be a contemporary of Hero, since the date of composition of the `Definitiones' is unknown. I do agree with the author saying at the end: Thus, it will require the identification of other chronologically significant connections between the Diophantine corpus and related works to make a firmer determination of this date.