Atticism

Atticism literally means a preference for the Athenians or the pure Attic ( Greek ) language. In a narrower sense is denoted by Atticism movement in rhetoric, which began BC in the middle of the 1st century.

The roots of Atticism in a broader sense dates back to the beginnings of Hellenism, its origin lies in the areas of grammar and philology. After the death of Alexander the Great began in Pergamon and Alexandria to process the literature and poetry of the past centuries philological, which soon stopped the sensation that the cultural achievements of the 5th and 4th centuries BC on the contemporary to were set. The Attic authors from this period have been compiled in Canon Alexandrinus of Alexandrian grammarians then, so they were soon regarded as exemplary, got their vocabulary and language use normative character: the imitation of Attic pattern was the style, with the foreseeable result that the literary language resulted in a classicism and soon in contrast to the evolving vernacular ( Koine '), whose base was the Attic dialect since the beginning of Hellenism, and which later developed the means Greek.

The Atticism became the program when he came in the 1st century BC in the rhetoric in an opposite position to the coming of the Greek cities of Asia Minor Asianism. After the style of Hellenistic, sophistic rhetoric was perceived as too highbrow, the call for a return to the simple and objective approaches have been noisy, quickly found themselves in positions of Atticism: The sick asianischen style was common attizistische ( especially that of Lysias ) opposite.

Essential representatives of Atticism Gaius Licinius Macer were in Rome Calvus ( 82-47 BC), who even Cicero (who dealt in his Brutus with the Asianism and the Atticism ) designated style as wordy and artificial, and here the so-called Jungattiker followed in Greece Dionysios of Halicarnassus ( first century BC) and later Lucian of Samosata ( 120-180 ), in particular the latter helped that the Atticism survived until the Renaissance. Although originally simpler language of Atticism was eventually refined as well as the speeches that he was trying to replace, he remained throughout the Greek world generally understood, which significantly helped to maintain cultural connections in the Mediterranean and beyond.

The dispute between Atticism and Asianism was continued in the early imperial period by succession struggles between modern and archaic rhetoric, the latter being a archaism in the literature produced in the 2nd century, the primarily at Marcus Cornelius Fronto, the tutor of Emperor Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus is clear.

  • Rhetoric
  • Editorial Studies
  • Classics
  • Ancient Greek language
Athens Attic Greek 4th century BC Koine Greek Asiatic style Licinius Macer Calvus Integrated Authority File
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