Page:Vocabulary of Menander (1913).djvu/16



After the Athenians lost their ascendancy in the affairs of Greece, their originality in literature began to decline. Loss of supremacy brought with it loss of vigor. With the rule of the Macedonian came a lessening of interest in public affairs, accompanied by a spiritual weakening. Patriotism had been a large factor in producing the great literary works of the fifth century. When this impulse was gone, men of a literary bent devoted themselves to scientific pursuits and to the study of the writings of the past. Schools of grammarians sprang up. Other circumstances contributed to this result. With the conquests of Alexander, Greek spread and became a world-language. This advance brought a loss of purity, due to the difficulty foreigners had in learning the language. As the current speech gradually changed the use of glosses to interpret the older language became more and more necessary. As the fifth century Greek had to be instructed in Homer (cf. Aristophanes . fr. 222 K.), so the Greek of the third century required helps to the understanding of old tragedy and comedy. Again, the immense superiority of the classical masterpieces, the recognition that they were "classic" ( is indeed the word for "classic") brought with it a certain veneration for the language of the "classical" writers where it differed from the current speech. The teacher was not content to inculcate the principles of the best writing of his day, but gave to his pupils, as the standard by which they should measure their style, the best writers of the fifth and fourth centuries. The result was, inevitably, the equating, more or less, of the = glosses, with, and the mere glossary came in the end to serve as a dictionary of standard usage. When we come to the revival of "Atticism", the lines were drawn very closely. All departures, or supposed departures, from the old Attic in vocabulary and syntax were ruthlessly condemned, and these standards were applied not only