Atticism and Attic vernacular in second-century Athens

Abstract

Athens in the second century A.D. was one of the most important centres of intellectual activity in the Roman Empire. Athens was the seat of a number of prospering philosophical and rhetorical schools, which attracted students from all parts of the empire. Intellectuals of all sorts followed them, philosophers or would-be philosophers not attached to any particular school, grammarians and teachers of rhetoric who hoped to establish themselves in Athens, job-seekers who aspired to employment in the administration of the empire or in private enterprises. Tourists came to visit the famous city, to admire the monuments of its glorious past and the new buildings erected by benevolent emperors and by other benefactors. [excerpt]