7Z3 



ATTIC. 



ATTIC DIALECT. 



730 



short pilasters at intervals, in the front of which are figures placed 

 above the pilasters of the nave. Vitruvius and Pliny do not make any 

 mention of or allusion to the attic of a building as we understand it at 

 the present day. In the annexed cut we have given a representation 

 of a Roman attic, the only remaining part of a superbly decorated wall 



Part of * liuilding inclosing the Forum of Nerva at Rome. 



inclosing the Forum of Nerva at Rome. This wall was of considerable 

 extent, and was divided at intervals by columns projecting from the 

 wall, over which, as may be seen in the drawing, the attic wall is con- 

 tinued at right angles to the wall forming the inclosure. The attic 

 aluo is a very conspicuous feature in the triumphal arches at Rome, and 

 a necessary one ; it was not merely intended as a frame-work for the 

 inscription, nor as a support for statues, but is essential to the pro- 

 portions of the whole composition. [ARCH, TRIUMPHAL.] 



In all the best examples, and especially in the remains of antiquity 

 at Rome, the attic is decorated with a moulded base and cornice, often 

 with pilasters and figures, as in the arch or Constantino. At Thessa- 

 lonica. in the Jews' quarter, are the remains of a building called the 



The Incantada at Tliessalonlca. 



Incantwla, drawn and described by Stuart in the 3rd vol. of his 

 ' Athens.' Five Corinthian column* on their pedestals support an 



entablature : over four of these columns there still exists an attic 

 adorned on each side with figures in alto-rilievo. The spaces between 

 the figures are open, and there is a cornice over the figures with a base 

 at their feet. The design and execution of this work are attributed to 

 the period of Roman dominion, rather than to any other. (Stuart's 

 ' Athens,' vol. iii.) At Bourdeaux, a somewhat similar building existed 

 in the reign of Louis XIV., which was destroyed by Vauban to erect 

 the fortifications constructed at that time. Perrault, the architect, 

 made a drawing of the ruin previous to its destruction, from which 

 circumstance the design is now preserved, and may be seen in the 

 2nd edition of Stuart's ' Athens ' (1 825). The most remarkable differ- 

 ence between this building and the Incantada is, that in the former 

 the openings in the attic between the figures are arched, while in the 

 latter they are bounded by the straight line of the cornice. The arch 

 in the former proves it incontestably to have been a Roman work ; 

 while from the uncertainty respecting the date and use of the building 

 at Thessalonica, the period of its erection cannot be ascertained. 



The Italian architects who had studied the remains of antiquity in 

 Rome, and those who followed in their school, usually employed 

 an attic in their designs, as may be seen by a reference to their works, 

 and more especially to the designs of Palladio, entitled ' Le Fabbriche 

 e i disegni di Andrea Palladio raccolti ed illustrati,' da Ottavio Bertotti 

 Seamozzi, 1776. The attic is in very common use in the public build- 

 ings of London. Somerset House, in the view towards the street, may 

 be taken as offering a very good example of this feature of an edifice. 

 Opinions differ as to the attic : some consider it a deformity, and at least 

 only to be tolerated where it is unavoidable. They would accordingly 

 confine it nearly altogether to domestic architecture. 



ATTIC, IN BUILDING. Generally speaking, in England the term 

 attic is limited to the sense of a story in the roof of a building ; and 

 it is even applied to such stories, when there is a decoration, such as 

 a balustrade or parapet, which completes the elevation and effectually 

 masks the roof itself. 



The rules usually observed by architects in settling the proportions, 

 and the details, of an attic may be found in Chambers, ' Civil Archi- 

 tecture,' edition by Gwilt, 1825 ; or in Quatremere de Quincy, ' Encyclo- 

 p^die Me'thodique,'17S8; Millin, in his ' Dictionnaire des Beaux Arts," 

 has some long notes upon the subject, mainly copied from those of the 

 ' Encyclopedic Me'thodique.' 



ATTIC DIALECT, is a term which applied to designate one of the 

 varieties of the ancient Greek language. A close connection and rela- 

 tionship existed between the old inhabitants of Attica and the loniam ; 

 and in conformity with this fact, we find it stated (Strabo, p. 333) 

 that the Ionic form of the Greek language, or the Ionic dialect, as 

 it is generally called, " was the same as the old Attic, for the ancient 

 Athenians were called lonians." But in course of time the language 

 of Athens, which was improved by a great number of writers, gradually 

 acquired a distinct character, and also a decided pre-eminence, owing 

 to the excellent works which were written in it on almost every ' 

 branch of literature. Most of the great works of antiquity which 

 have been transmitted to our times are written in the Attic dialect. 

 Some writers have made two, and some three divisions of the Attic 

 dialect, with reference to extant writers ; but the general division of 

 the Attic dialect into old and new seems to be sufficiently exact. To 

 the former division belong ^Eschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Aris- 

 tophanes, Antiphon, Thucydides, &c. ; to the latter, Demosthenes, 

 -iEschines, and the contemporary orators. The language of Xenophon, 

 Plato, and indeed Aristophanes also, may be considered as possessing a 

 character somewhat intermediate between the two classes, and the 

 name of middle may consequently be given to it; but it would be 

 difficult to say exactly how a writer of this middle class is to be 

 distinguished from the writers of the new Attic. 



After the tune of Alexander, when the Greeks were more united as 

 a nation, the superiority of Athenian literature made the language of 

 Athens the common language of those who wrote pure Greek. Aristotle 

 may be considered as the earliest extant writer, not an Athenian by 

 birth, who adopted the language of Athens. The Attic dialect, then 

 somewhat modified under Macedonian influence and by local circum- 

 stances, became the common written language of the educated Greeks. 

 We find accordingly, under the successors of Alexander, and afterwards 

 under the Romans, a series of Greek prose writers belonging to various 

 countries, but all attempting to write one common language. These 

 writers no doubt have each some peculiarities ; but these peculiarities 

 are not of that kind which distinguish the Ionic Greek of Herodotus, 

 or the Doric Idylls of Theocritus from the language of Thucydides and 

 Euripides. This common language of the learned Greeks was called 

 the common dialect (>j HOW^, or >j 'E\\rii>uefi JioAfxros) : Polybius, a 

 native of the Peloponnesus, Strabo of Asia Minor, Diodorus of Sicily, 

 and others, belong to the writers who use the Common Dialect. Some 

 late writers affected rather to imitate the pure old Attic standard than 

 to use the modified Attic, or Common Dialect, as Lucian, Arrian in his 

 Anabasis, Aristides, &c. The name of Atticists ('ArriKKTrai) was given 

 to this artificial class of writers, but especially to such imitators as 

 Aristides. [ARISTIDES, ^ELins, in Bioo. Div.] The real characteristics 

 of the Attic dialect can only be known by a careful study of the 

 writers. The reader may consult Maittaire's ' Gracse Linguae Dialecti, 

 by Sturz, 1807; Buttmann's ' Greek Grammar ; ' and Matthiaj's ' Greek 

 Grammar.' 



