Knowra Atticism Atticism Atticism is the imitation of classical Attic Greek language and style, especially by Greek writers of the Hellenistic and Roman periods. It favored the vocabulary, grammar, and rhetorical models associated with Athens.
Attic Greek : The ancient Greek dialect spoken in Attica, including Athens, and a major basis of classical Greek literature. Atticism takes this dialect as its principal linguistic model.
Classical Athens : The city-state of Athens during its cultural and political prominence in the fifth and fourth centuries BCE. Atticism looked back to the language and literary authority of this period.
Lucian : A second-century CE Greek author known for satirical dialogues, essays, and rhetorical works. His writing both used Atticist conventions and satirized their excesses.
Asianism : A Greek and Roman rhetorical style associated with elaborate expression, energetic delivery, and florid ornament. Ancient critics often opposed its exuberance to Atticist restraint and simplicity.
Ancient Greek education : The systems of instruction through which ancient Greek communities taught literacy, literature, rhetoric, and civic skills. Atticist standards circulated through schooling and rhetorical training across the Roman Empire.
Classical Greek : The form of ancient Greek associated chiefly with the classical period, especially the fifth and fourth centuries BCE. Atticism selects classical Greek as its standard for later writing.
Second Sophistic : A movement of Greek rhetoric and literary culture flourishing under the Roman Empire, especially from the first to third centuries CE. Atticism became a conspicuous stylistic ideal among writers of this movement.
Aelius Aristides : A second-century CE Greek orator and author associated with the Second Sophistic. His speeches exemplify the prestige of classical Greek models under Roman rule.
Koine Greek : The common Greek language that spread across the eastern Mediterranean after the conquests of Alexander the Great. Atticism distinguished itself from the widespread contemporary language by favoring older Attic forms.
Greek paideia : The formation of a person through Greek education, literature, civic practice, and cultural values. Command of classical Greek style became one marker of participation in Greek paideia.
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