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Phoenicio-Babylonian origin, in imitation of phonetic hieroglyphs, were those of the ancient Phoenician and Hebrew alphabets, called also Ionian letters. Out of this alphabet the following 3 letters were ejected, and used as numeral signs, viz.: the 6th, Bav (or F, called the Eolic digamma, found on Achæan and Bootian coins, also σ as 5, stigma); the 19th, qoppa (whence our Q, on coins of Crotona and Syracuse, as a numeral standing for 90); and the cav KIßoŋλov (in Pindar, an impure S, from which arose the, sampi, as a numeral standing for 900). The two other Semitic sibilants were converted into (the samech) and ɛ (the shin and sin). That H and 2 were known before Simonides appears from inscriptions at Abusimbel in Egypt. The ancient letters were all uncial, or what we call capital; the present cursive or round letters occur first in inscriptions of the age of Augustus, and resemble the Coptic shapes. Negligently written, with many contractions, they occur also in notes written on Egyptian papyri, with the mystic scrolls of the Abraxas; also in the manuscript Colbertin code of the Pentateuch, in manuscripts of Dioscorides (of the 6th century A. D.), and in others. The H was originally what it is now with us. (See letter H.) The spiritus signs were first employed in the grammatical works of Alexandrine scholars. The present cursive characters, with many ligatures, have been in common use since the 10th century A. D. The Greeks wrote originally from right to left, afterward alternately both ways, and lastly from left to right. As the precise pronunciation, in all its shades, cannot now be reproduced, we must be satisfied with an approximate phonetic value of the letters. Reuchlin and the modern Greeks pronounce the vowels 4, 7, v, and the diphthongs et, ot, vi, all like the Italian i (being hence called Itacists); the a like the Italian e; and the diphthongs av, ev, like af, ef, or av, ev. But Erasmus ought rather to be followed, as he distinguishes those letters by sounds, preserves the diphthongs, and thus shows both more respect for the common sense of the ancient Greeks, and more regard for etymological truth as well as euphony. He and his followers are called Etacists.-Plato's Cratylus is the first important attempt toward an investigation of the origin and essential elements of the Greek language. Aristotle treats of several topics connected especially with logic in speech. The Megaric stoics also paid attention to this subject. The most prominent grammarians were the following: Aristophanes Byzantinus (about 260 B. C.), librarian of the Ptolemies, founder of a school of critics, fragments of whose writings were edited by August Nauck (Halle, 1848); Aristarchus of Samothrace, teacher of the Ptolemies, the greatest of all critics, who had also a school at Rome, arranged and corrected Homer's and other ancient works, and established the 8 parts of speech; Crates, founder of a school at Pergamus, who developed the anomalies of the language; Dionysius

Thrax (80 B. C.), author of a grammar that became the standard for succeeding ones (edited by Immanuel Bekker, and more completely by Cirbied, from an Armenian manuscript, Paris, 1824); Apollonius Dyscolos, called the prince of grammarians (under Hadrian), author of De Constructione Orationis libri IV. (edited by I. Bekker, Berlin, 1817; De Pronomine, 1811; and by Lange, Das System der Syntax, &c., Göttingen, 1853); Ælius Herodianus, his son (Á. D. 300); Dracon and Hephaestion, who wrote on prosody (edited by G. Hermann, Leipsic, 1812); Theodosius Alexandrinus, author of a treatise on grammar (edited by Göttling, Leipsic, 1832); Ammonius and Helladius of Alexandria (end of 4th century), De Differentia Affinium Vocabulorum (edited by G. H. Schaefer, Leipsic, 1822); Georgius Chibroscus (end of 6th century), De Figuris Poeticis, Oratoris, et Theologicis. Portions of these, as well as the whole works or fragments of other grammarians, were edited by I. Bekker (3 vols., Berlin, 1814-21); L. Bachmann, from manuscripts in the royal library at Paris (2 vols., Leipsic, 1828-'9); J. A. Cramer, from manuscripts at Oxford (4 vols., 1835-7); all three under the title of Anecdota Graca. See also Grammatici Græci, edited by Guil. Dindorf (Leipsic, 1825); Classen, De Grammatica Græcæ Primordiis (Bonn, 1829); Rud. Schmidt, Stoicorum Grammatica (Göttingen, 1838); Séguier, La philosophie de la langue exposée d'après Aristote (Paris, 1838); Lersch, Sprachlehre der Alten (3 vols., Bonn, 1839-41). Shortly before the fall of Constantinople (1453) learned Greeks began to emigrate to the western countries of Europe, especially to Italy. Manuel Chrysoloras, who had sought for help against the Turks in England in 1389, taught Greek in Italy, and died (1415) while at the council of Constance; his Erotemata Grammatica were printed in 1488. Georgius Gemistius, surnamed Plethon (full of science), was at the council of Florence (1439), and tried to supplant Aristotle by recommending Plato's works; he was the instructor of Cardinal Bessarion. Constantine Lascaris came to Italy after the capture of Constantinople, and taught Bembo, the daughter of Sforza, and others; his grammar, written in Greek, is the first book that was printed in Greek characters (Milan, 1476); it was reprinted by Aldus Manutius (Venice, 1494). Theodore Gaza of Thessalonica taught also in Italy, and wrote (in Greek) Introductionis Grammaticæ libri IV. (Venice, 1495). Emmanuel Moschopulos, George Hermonymos, and others, also taught and wrote in Italy. Among the disciples of these worthies may be mentioned Politianus, Marsilius Ficinus, Reuchlin, &c. The fruits of this revival of Greek were the following: Aldus Manutius, Grammatica Institutiones (Venice, 1515); Nic. Clénard, Institutiones Linguæ Græca (Louvain, 1530); Varenius, Syntax (1532); G. Budæus, Commentarii Linguæ Græcæ (Paris, 1548); J. Camerarius, Commentarii Lingua Græca (Basel, 1551); Vergara's Grammar, abridged by Nuñez de Valencia (1555); Hellenismus Ca

ninii (Paris, 1555); Ramus, Grammatica (1557); W. Camden, Grammatica Græca Institutio (London, 1591); Claude Lancelot, Nouvelle méthode pour apprendre la langue Grecque, dite Grammaire de Port-Royal (Paris, 1655); Jacob Weller, Grammatica Græca (Amsterdam, 1696); J. F. Fischer, Animadversiones in Welleri Grammaticam Græcam (1798-1801). The so called Hallesche Grammatik (1705) and Märkische Grammatik (1730) were much used in Germany. Melanchthon also published a Greek grammar. In Holland the following great critics may be mentioned: L. C. Valckenaer, who taught the method of finding Greek roots; Dan. a Lennep, author of Prælectiones Academica de Analogia Lingua Græcæ (1790); Tiberius Hemsterhuis, Ruhnken, D'Orville, &c. Prominent among English writers are Richard Bentley, who discovered many great features of the Greek language; Toup, who corrected the lexicon of Suidas; and Dawes, who established many important rules of syntax. The work of J. G. J. Hermann, De Emendanda Ratione Grammatica Græca (Leipsic, 1801), opened a new path in this study. In general, the French are far behind the Germans and English in the study of Greek, although the French government supports a chair for this purpose at Athens. (For an account of the principal Greek lexicons, see DICTIONARY.)-The modern Greeks assert that their tongue differs less from the ancient than the Italian from the Latin, and that it is not less analogous to the Hellenic than was the Doric to the Attic dialect. On the islands of the archipelago and in the mountainous regions of Greece, many archaic turns, Homeric expressions, and classic words are yet preserved, though often wrongly written, that do not occur in the idioms of cities, and some not even in the later classic writers. It is probable that many of the contractions, suppressions of endings, and other features of the modern language existed during the most flourishing period of Greece. Christianity also contributed much to the alteration of the ancient Hellenic tongue, in the same way as it did in producing the Coptic from the language of the Pharaohs. Romaic is spoken in Livadia and Morea, in parts of Roumelia, Albania (mixed with Skipetaric), Anatolia, in the archipelago, Candia, Cyprus, the Ionic islands, where it is very much Italianized, as in Morea, and even in Wallachia and Moldavia, where it is mixed with Bulgarian. It is least degenerated in the archipelago and in the mountains, less pure in Megaris, and most corrupt in the Ionic islands. Its dialects, about 72 in number, may be thus grouped: a, Romeika, with variations at Constantinople (Fanariotic), Salonica, Janina, Athens, and Hydra; b, EoloDoric, in Eleuthero-Laconia, in Candia, where it is cultivated in books, and in Cyprus. Its vocabulary consists of 5 categories: 1, ancient words, either with their former or with an altered signification; 2, ancient words with more or less preserved forms, as diminutives, Boïdiov, ox, aiyidior, goat, pidi, snake; 3, ancient words

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not found in the classics, for instance some names of animals and plants, as To тpuyon, turtle dove, doadayyos, snail; 4, new words derived from the ancient, as Tupkaïa, Lat. incendium, Germ. Feurs-brunst; To pepoμov, moral conduct; 5, barbarous words, as Lavovapios, deBpovapios, &c., names of months; paßola, strawberry, Lat. fragum; To redσoμvo, jessamine; o pyy, the prince; ó μaτos, box on the ear (from battre), French soufflet; xarins, pilgrim, from Hadji, Arabic; païpov, monkey, Magyar majom. The letters and orthographic signs are the same as in the ancient Greek; but the spiritus and iota subscript are effete, and the three accents produce but one effect of stress on one of the 3 final syllables of the word. B sounds like our v, 7 (unless before gutturals) almost like h, & like the Spanish final d in salud, like the French z, 8 like our th in thick, « before like German ch, and after y and after a final like hard g; σ is hard, unless before μ; the combination like our d (as in ancient Egyptian); μ like our b; ou like the Italian u. In consequence of the συνίζησις or fusion of vowels, which is popular and poetic, the number of syllables in a word is diminished, thus: Taidia, children, is pronounced pedya, in 2 syllables; evvolwσa, I perceived, ennyosa (like French gne in campagne), in 3 syllables. The modern Greek has no dative, dual, optative, infinitive, middle voice, preterite perfect or pluperperfect, or future, but employs instead periphrases by means of auxiliaries, &c. Many verbs of active form have a passive signification, except the past participle, as σπαω, I am strangled, εσπασα, σπασμένος. There is an indefinite article, evas, a, an; and a very inelegant relative pronoun, óñου; and eval signifies both is and are. The pluperfect tense is made by the imperfect of exo, to have. The optative is supplied by the conjunction auоте. The 3d person of both numbers of the imperative is similar to our let, thus: as (allow) payn, as ypaywμev, scribito, scribunto. The future auxiliary is deλw, I will; the conditional is made with its imperfect, thus: neλa ypaɣew, I would (should) write. The remains of the ancient forms are now anomalies. The syntax is uniform, dull, but clear, in consequence of the loss of many ancient particles.-An easily accessible manual for commencing the study of the modern Greek is the "Romaic Grammar with a Chrestomathy and Vocabulary," by E. A. Sophocles (Hartford, 1842). The most convenient lexicon is perhaps that of Dehèque, Dictionnaire Grec-moderne-Français (Paris, 1825).— LITERATURE. In its widest extent, the history of Greek literature is coeval with that of the language. It begins in a period of indef inite antiquity, and comes down to the present day. If we commence with the earliest monuments, we trace it back nearly to 1000 B. C., where we find the art of poetical composition existing already in the highest per fection, in the form of epic narrative. The admirable structure and the wonderful language

of the Homeric poems imply a long period of antecedent culture, striking intimations of which are found in the poems themselves. Poetry preceded prose, in the form of hymns to the gods, and songs or ballads in celebration of martial deeds. Of the earliest temple poetry no specimens have been preserved, but the Homeric hymns may give us some idea of their style. Of the earliest ballads also, none have come down to us; but the song of Demodocus in the Odyssey no doubt very fairly represents their primitive style of composition. The ballads were in their nature epic, and led in the course of time to the proper epic, which is found in its perfect type in the Iliad and Odyssey. For this great step the world is indebted to the marvellous genius of Homer. The temple poetry appears to have originated in the north of Greece, and in the temples of Dodona, Delphi, and other primeval seats of Greek religious culture. Ballad poetry probably appeared at a very early period on the Greek mainland; but its full development took place among the Ionian colonies of Asia Minor and the Ægæan islands. The principal names of the legendary minstrels were Amphion, Orpheus, Thamyris, Eumolpus, Musæus, Linus, Olen, and Olympus. The great name of Homer overpeers all other epic poets. We reject entirely the theories of Wolf and Lachmann, and hold to the belief in Homer and in the essential unity of the two great poems. These epics belong, as we have said, to the Greeks of Asia, where Homer was probably born, and where he certainly lived. The Iliad is founded on the legends of the war of Troy; the Odyssey on the return of Odysseus (Ulysses); and we have them substantially as they came from the genius of their author. About 50 compositions of various length, in a style closely resembling that of the Iliad and Odyssey, together with a burlesque poem, called Batrachomyomachia, or the "Battle of the Frogs and Mice," have also been attributed to Homer. The former probably belong to a period not much later than the Homeric age; the latter certainly belongs to a period several centuries afterward. The epic style was continued by a series of poets called the "cyclic," of whose works only the titles, brief abstracts, and fragments have been preserved. The next development of poetry was in Boeotia, in the works of Hesiod, who also employed the epic style. His principal poems are the "Works and Days," and the Theogonia. The next form of Greek poetry was the elegiac, and, in close connection with it, the iambic. The rhythm of epic poetry was dactylic, and the metre hexameter. The Ionians of Asia Minor were also the originators of the elegiac and iambic. The elegiac rhythm was also dactylic, and its measure alternately hexameter and pentameter; or rather, every alternate verse consisted of two catalectic trimeters. The principal poets in this style were Archilochus, 720 B. C.; Callinus, 700 B. C.; Simonides of Amorgos, 693 B. C., who shares with Archilochus the credit of having invented the iambic tri

meter; Tyrtæus, 680 B. C., author of the martial elegies; Mimnermus, 600 B. C.; Solon, 630 B. C. This species of composition is sometimes ranked with the lyric; but it is more properly to be considered as a transition from the epic to the proper lyric. The principal orders of lyric poetry were paans, hyporchemes, parcenia, scolia, embateria, and epinicia. The forms of composition were strophic, i. e., with divisions called strophes, corresponding to each other line for line; choral, with strophes corresponding by pairs, or with these and proödes, mesodes, and epodes. The rhythms were of the richest variety, and artfully constructed so as to express by their movement the sentiment or passion intended to be conveyed by the language. The strophic composition was usually delivered with a simple musical accompaniment; the choral, with a musical accompaniment and a rhythmical motion, sometimes a dance performed by the trained choreute, or members of the band who delivered it. Of the lyric style, there were two principal schools, the Eolic and the Doric. The Eolic flourished chiefly among the Eolian colonies of Asia Minor, and especially in Lesbos. The Doric was more generally diffused over Greece, Asia Minor, Sicily, and even Italy. The principal writers of the Eolian poetry, which was strophic in form, were Alcæus, 610 B. C., and Sappho, his contemporary, both Lesbians. Akin to this school may be considered the lyric poetry of Anacreon, 560 B. C.; not the odes which pass under his name, but the fragments which alone represent his genuine compositions, and which are rather Ionic than Æolic in tone and style. Of the poets who form, as it were, a transition to the proper Dorian choral poets, Alcman and Stesichorus may be placed at the head. Stesichorus, 632 B. C., was the first to introduce the epode, and to give a greater variety to the rhythm of the strophes than had been customary before. His language was the old epic, modified by some Dorian forms. Simonides of Ceos flourished 556 B. C.; Ibycus about 540; Bacchylides was the nephew of Simonides. We come now to the greatest master of the Dorian lyric style, and perhaps the greatest lyric poet of all ages, Pindar, born at Cynoscephala in Boeotia. Of his numerous compositions, we have only the 4 series of epinician odes, i. e., odes written in commemoration of victories gained at the 4 national festivals, the Olympic, Pythian, Nemean, and Isthmian. These are the most important specimens that have come down to us from the lyrical age. We say the lyrical age, because lyrical composition was the characteristic style during this period, although it continued to be cultivated with other species in the subsequent times. The date of Pindar's birth is 522 B. C.-The earliest writers of prose were those who first engaged in philosophical speculations. Of their writings, however, only a few fragments have been preserved. Thales was the founder of the Ionic philosophy, to which belonged Pherecydes, Anaximander, Anaximenes, Anaxagoras, &c. Pythagoras es

tablished the Italian school, and was followed by Alcmæon, Timæus, Epicharmus, Theages, Archytas, and others. In history the Ionians took the lead. Cadmus of Miletus, about 540 B. C., is the earliest; Acesilaus of Argos soon followed. Hecateus of Miletus came somewhat later; Pherecydes of Leros, Charon of Lampsacus, Hellanicus of Mitylene, Dionysius of Miletus, all preceded Herodotus, but were rather chroniclers than historians in the proper sense of the word. The first great historian was Herodotus of Halicarnassus, 484 B.C., who, though a Dorian by birth, wrote in the Ionic dialect. His delightful work is preserved, and its extraordinary merits have given him justly the name of the "Father of History." Literature was cultivated later in Athens than in the Asiatic colonies; but the foundations were more deeply laid, and that famous city must always be regarded as the teacher of the world in arts and letters. We have already mentioned Solon among the elegiac poets. The Athenians were of Ionian descent, and their literature may be regarded as the continuation and perfection of the literature of that race. But the characteristic form of Athenian poetry. was the dramatic. During the long period of democratic Athens, especially in the time of Pisistratus, much was done for the patronage of literature and literary men. The Homeric poems were carefully revised, and the regular reading of them was one of the public entertainments of the Panathenaic festival. Dramatic poetry, in a partially developed form, had already existed elsewhere; the dithyrambic tragedy had made its appearance. The dramatic element in the Homeric epics, especially the Iliad, could not fail to strike the listeners at the festivals, and to suggest the idea of representing instead of narrating events; of exhibiting persons in action rather than describing them. The dramatic pageantry of the Dionysiac worship furnished another suggestion of the dramatic form. The actual starting point of the Greek drama was the choral song, tragedy springing from the dithyramb and comedy from the phallic representation. But the direction given to the new style was determined by the several influences we have mentioned. Thespis took the first step, 536 B. C., by adding action to the chorus. He was followed by Phrynichus, who flourished 511 B. C., and who was the first to bring female characters upon the stage. His "Capture of Miletus" was performed 498 B. C. Chorilus was his contemporary and rival. Pratinas of Phlius lived in the same period. Eschylus, the perfecter of tragic art, was born at Eleusis, 525 B. C. This great poet added a second actor, and lived to see the tragic art raised to its highest point of excellence by his own genius and that of Sophocles, who added a third. Greek tragedy is well represented by the remaining works of Eschylus, Sophocles, 495 B. C., and Euripides, 480 B. C. Of each of the two former only 7 plays are in existence; of the last there are 19, viz.: 17 tragedies, one

tragi-comedy, and one satyric drama. It was the practice of the tragic writers to combine in one representation 3 tragedies, and a kind of farce, called a satyric drama, because the chorus consisted of satyrs. But instead of a satyric drama, the Alcestis of Euripides shows that sometimes the representation was closed by a piece resembling the modern tragi-comedy. The 3 tragedies were called a trilogy, and the 4 pieces together a tetralogy. Of the tragic poets who succeeded the 3 great masters, or were their contemporaries, only the titles of plays and brief fragments remain. Comedy went along with tragedy, and sustained very peculiar relations to it. It originated probably among the Dorians, and was brought into regular form by Epicharmus about 500 B. C., and he is therefore justly called the inventor of comedy. Of the proper Attic comedy Chionides and Magnes were among the earliest writers; but of their works only a few titles remain. Cratinus first exhibited in 448 B. C.; 38 titles of his comedies have been collected. Crates wrote about 450 B. C., and Phrynichus the comic poet lived a little before the Peloponnesian war; the names of 10 of his comedies are extant. Eupolis exhibited for the first time in 429 B. C.; he was a contemporary and rival of Aristophanes. The dates of the birth and death of Aristophanes are unknown-probably, however, about 460 and 380 B. C.; but 11 comedies have come down to us from the 54 which, according to Suidas, he wrote. His first recorded exhibition was 427 and his last 388 B. C. From these plays, 10 of which belong to the old comedy, i. e., to that period of Attic comedy in which public and private characters were introduced by name, we can form a distinct idea of the character and tendencies of this branch of the Attic drama. There were many other writers of the old comedy, but only their names and a few fragments have been preserved. The middle comedy is that form which comedy assumed when it was forbidden by law to introduce living persons by name. Thirty-four poets belonging to this branch are mentioned, but none of their works-of which an immense number were known to the ancients-have been preserved, except in unimportant fragments. The names of 3 sons of Aristophanes occur in this number. The new comedy was a still further modification which comedy first assumed in the age of Alexander. Its distinguishing characteristic was, that all its characters were fictitious. The earliest writer was Philippides, who flourished 323 B. C. The two most celebrated names were Philemon and Menander, the former of whom wrote 97, and the latter 105 plays. Numerous fragments of Menander, some of them of considerable length, show the elegance of his style and the variety and vigor of his genius. The last poet of the new comedy was Posidippus, who began to exhibit in 289 B. C.; he wrote more than 50 pieces. The fertility and excellence of the Greek dramatic literature were most remarkable. The Dionysiac festivals,

celebrated at Athens in the spring, were the principal occasion on which new pieces were brought out, and always in competition for the prize, and under the direction of the chief magistrates. The emulation thus excited among men of the highest genius gave a wonderful impulse to this species of composition, the originality and extent of which have always appeared so surprising.-The prose compositions that belong to this age were equally distinguished by their appropriate excellences. In history, we have Thucydides, born about 471 B.C., whose work on the Peloponnesian war is not only the first specimen of what has been called philosophical history, but remains unsurpassed down to the present time. Xenophon was born in 447 B. C. His historical works, though not equal to that of Thucydides in vigor of coloring and depth of reflection, yet are adorned with every grace of narrative and description. His other works are valuable for the light they throw on the spirit of Greek institutions, and the peculiarities of Greek life. Of the works of Ctesias, Philistus, Theopompus, and Ephorus, which belong to a period somewhat earlier, none have come down entire. In philosophy, to which the teachings of Socrates (born 468 B. C.) gave a great impulse, we have the writings of Plato (born 428 B. C.), and his pupil Aristotle (born 384 B. C.). Plato was endowed with a brilliant imagination, and loved to soar into the highest region of speculation. His sense of the beautiful was exquisite; and his style was at once idiomatic and lofty, while in passages it moved with a rich and stately music which all ages have admired. Aristotle was a student and observer; practical results were the object of his investigations. His style was terse, logical, close, seldom adorned with poetical embellishments, and never with rhetorical exaggerations. Every thing he wrote embodied the results of careful and extensive observations, or comparison of observations. He never entered the world of ideas with Plato. His views were comprehensive, and his exposition, except where the writing evidently contains only the heads of his discourses, are singularly clear. His works embrace the subjects of logic, rhetoric, physics, metaphysics, natural history, and politics. Plato founded the Academic school, whose point of reunion was the academy, on the Cephissus, north of Athens; Aristotle established the Peripatetic school, in the lyceum, near the Ilissus, on the opposite side of the city. In the same period, political eloquence, always a characteristic form of Greek utterance, reached its highest perfection. In Homer we find not merely traces of eloquence, but admirable specimens. Public discussion was the general rule in the Greek republics. In Athens especially the statesman could not maintain himself, or exercise the smallest influence, without the faculty of public speaking. The historians relate the speeches of statesmen and generals. Thucydides describes the debates at Athens and elsewhere, on the questions that VOL. VIII.-30

preceded and the events that occurred in the Peloponnesian war. Herodotus and Xenophon abound in speeches and orations; Solon, Pisistratus, Miltiades, Aristides, Themistocles, and Pericles were orators as well as legislators, counsellors, and generals. Pericles was the first to cultivate the art, and to adorn his mind with the teachings of philosophy and general literary culture. We have no exact report of any of the speeches of this class of statesmen, though Thucydides undoubtedly gives us the substance of several of the most important of those of Pericles. The rhetorical art in its technical character originated in Sicily; and the first rhetorical school at Athens was opened by Gorgias of Leontini. Other sophists and teachers of rhetoric were Protagoras, Prodicus, Hippias, &c. The peculiar judicial system also of Athens made a great demand for the rhetorical talent. The Athenian orators, whose works are extant in whole or in part, are Antiphon, born 480 B. C.; Andocides, 467; Lysias, 458; Isocrates, 436; Isæus, between the conclusion of the Peloponnesian war and the accession of Philip of Macedon; Lycurgus, 408; Hyperides, 396; Eschines, 889; Demades, about the same age as Demosthenes; Demosthenes, 385, or according to others, 381; and Dinarchus, 360. Among the orations of these men there is every variety of excellence, from the subtlest legal argument to the most passionate appeals. Demosthenes combines all the excellences of all the others, with some that are peculiar, at least in degree, to himself.-After the death of Alexander the Great, although literature continued to be cultivated in Greece, and especially in Athens, the rhetorical and philosophical schools holding an eminent position for centuries afterward, yet till the Roman conquest the principal seat of letters and science was Alexandria, under the Ptolemies in Egypt. This period is called the Alexandrian age. Its characteristics were erudition, criticism, and the study of science; and in poetry the only original species was the bucolic or the idyl. The principal poets were Bion of Smyrna, Theocritus, Aratus (epic), Lycophron (author of "Cassandra"), Callimachus (epic, hymns), and Moschus, who flourished at the close of this period. The bucolic poets are picturesque and pleasing. During the Roman supremacy, and down to the introduction of Christianity, the principal poet was Nicander; the most important prose writers were Polybius, Apollodorus, Dionysius Thrax the grammarian, Diodorus Siculus, Dionysius of Halicarnassus, and Dionysius Periegetes. From this period to the close of the Roman empire in the West, are two parallel series of writers, the pagan and the Jewish and Christian. the most important are Babrius, Strabo, Epictetus, Plutarch, Dion Chrysostomus, Arrian, Polyænus, Pausanias, Marcus Antoninus, Aristides, Lucian, Pollux, Diogenes Laërtius, Achil les Tatius, Dion Cassius, Athenæus, Herodianus Philostratus, Plotinus, Dexippus, Longinus, Palæphatus, and Iamblichus; of the latter, Jose

Of the former,

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