In an article in the Classical Quarterly (January and April 1953), Mr G. E. L. Owen sought to show on grounds of style and content that the Timaeus and Critias probably precede the Phaedrus and certainly precede the Parmenides and the Theaetetus. His arguments need to be balanced by certain considerations which may be stated here very summarily:

1. ‘Stylometry.’ It is true that Cornford took no account and Taylor little account of Billig on Platonic clausulae (Journal of Philology, 1920) or of Kaluscha's work (Wiener Studien, 1904). But the most that either of these scholars can be said to have established is the priority on ‘stylometric’ grounds of Timaeus and Critias to Sophistes, Politicus and Philebus. They do not prove (and Kaluscha does not support) the priority of Timaeus and Critias to Parmenides and Theaetetus.