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Atticism (meaning "favouringAttica", the region ofAthens inGreece) was arhetorical movement that began in the first quarter of the 1st century BC. It may also refer to the wordings and phrasings typical of this movement, in contrast with various contemporary forms ofKoine Greek (both literary and vulgar), which continued to evolve in directions guided by the common usages ofHellenistic Greek.
Atticism was portrayed as a return to Classical methods after what was perceived as the pretentious style of theSophist rhetoric and called for a return to the approaches of theAttic orators.
Although the plainer language of Atticism eventually became as belabored and ornate as theperorations it sought to replace, its original simplicity meant that it remained universally comprehensible throughout the Greek world. This helped maintain vital cultural links across theMediterranean and beyond. Admired and popularly imitated writers such asLucian also adopted Atticism, so that the style survived until theRenaissance, when it was taken up by non-Greek students ofByzantine immigrants.Renaissance scholarship, the basis of modern scholarship in the West, nurtured strong Classical and Attic views, continuing Atticism for another four centuries.
Represented at its height by rhetoricians such asDionysius of Halicarnassus, and grammarians such asHerodian andPhrynichus Arabius atAlexandria, this tendency prevailed from the 1st century BC onward, and with the force of an ecclesiastical dogma controlled all subsequent Greek culture, so that the living form of the Greek language was quite obscured and only occasionally found expression, chiefly in private documents, though also in popular literature.
However, there were writers such asStrabo,Plutarch andJosephus who intentionally withdrew from this way of expression in favor of the common form of Greek.
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