Atticus
Atticus, Athenian, Attic
Could not find Attici in Logeion dictionaries.
Attici Proper-name adjective: masculine vocative plural, Proper-name adjective: neuter genitive singular, Proper-name adjective: masculine nominative plural, Proper-name adjective: masculine genitive singular of Atticus
- In gen., of or pertaining to Attica or Athens, Attic, Athenian: Athenae, Plaut. Ps. 1, 5, 2 (416); id. Rud. 3, 4, 36 (741) al.: civis Attica atque libera, id. Poen. 1, 2, 159 (368): civis Attica, Ter. And. 221: disciplina, Plaut. Cas. 3, 5, 24 (644): fines, Hor. C. 1, 3, 6: regio, Plin. 10, 12, 15, § 33: thymum, id. 21, 10, 31, § 57: mel, of Mount Hymettus, id. ib.: apis, Ov. Tr. 5, 4, 30: sal, Plin. 31, 7, 41, § 87: columnae, formed in the Attic manner, id. 36, 23, 56, § 179 (cf. atticurges): ochra, id. 37, 10, 66, § 179 (cf. 2. Attice): paelex, i.e. Philomela, Mart. 10, 51; cf. Ov. M. 6, 537: fides, i. e. sincere, firm, prov., Vell. 2, 23, 4: profluvius, a disease of animals, the glanders, Veg. Art. Vet. 1, 17 and 38.—Attĭci, ōrum, m., the Athenians, Phaedr. 1, 2, 6.—
- II Esp.
- A Appel., to designate the highest grade of style, philosophy, eloquence, etc., Cic. Opt. Gen. 3, 7 sqq.; cf. id. Brut. 82, 284 sqq.: Demosthenes, quo ne Athenas quidem ipsas magis credo fuisse Atticas, id. Or. 7, 23: lepos, Mart. 3, 20.—Hence, subst.: Attici, orators of the Attic stamp (opp. Asiani): et antiqua quidem illa divisio inter Atticos atque Asianos fuit: cum hi pressi et integri, contra inflati illi et inanes haberentur; in his nihil superflueret, illis judicium maxime ac modus deesset, etc., Quint. 12, 10, 16 sq.—And transf. to other things, excellent, preeminent, preferable: logi, Plaut. Pers. 3, 1, 66 (394).
- —Hence, Attĭcē, adv., in the Attic or Athenian manner: dicere, Cic. Brut. 84; 290; id. Opt. Gen. 3, 8; 4, 11; Quint. 12, 10, 18: loqui, id. 8, 1, 2: pressi oratores, id. 12, 10, 18.—
- B A surname of T. Pomponius, the intimate friend of Cicero, given to him on account of his long residence at Athens. His biography is found in Nepos.—
- C A friend of Ovid, Ov. Am. 1, 9, 2; id. P. 2, 4, 2. —
- D Antonius Atticus, a Latin rhetorician, Sen. Suas. 2, p. 19 Bip.—
- E Vipsanius Atticus, Sen. Contr. 2, 13, p. 184 Bip.
➳ gén. sync. tetrachmum Atticum Liv. 37, 46, 3.
- 1. inwoner v. Attica, Athener;
- 2. redenaar v.d. Attische stijl, Atticist;
- 3. als bijnaam: T. Pomponius ~ (omdat Pomponius lang in Athene gewoond had), een vriend v. Cicero, schreef historische werken, bracht als uitgever werken v.d. belangrijkste auteurs v. zijn tijd (onder wie Cicero) op de markt;
- 4. (meton.) rijk man.
a Roman rhetorician of the age of Seneca and Quintilian. (Senec. Suas. 2. p. 19, ed. Bip.) [L.S]
bishop of Constantinople, was born at Sebaste, now Sivas, in Armenia Minor. He was educated in the ascetic discipline of the Macedonian monks, under the eye of Eustathius, a celebrated bishop of that sect. However, when Atticus reached the age of manhood, he conformed to the orthodox church. He was ordained a presbyter at Constantinople; and in the violent contentions between the friends and the enemies of the famous Chrysostom, he sided with the latter. After the death of Arsacius, who had been elevated to the see of Constantinople on occasion of the second banishment of Chrysostom, Atticus succeeded to the office, although the illustrious exile was still living. The ecclesiastical historians, Socrates and Sozomen, describe Atticus as a man of great natural prudence, and both of them testify that he administered the affairs of the church with wisdom and success. His learning seems to have been respectable; his preaching, we are told, was not attractive. His general manner was extremely winning, and he was particularly distinguished for his liberality to the poor. On hearing that distress amounting almost to famine prevailed at Nicaea, he sent a large sum of money for the relief of the suffering population, accompanied by a letter to Calliopius, the bishop of the place, which is extant in the Ecclesiastical History of Socrates. In his treatment of heretics, he is said to have exhibited a judicious combination of kindness and severity. He spoke charitably of the Novatians, and commended their inflexible adherence to the true faith under the persecutions of Constantius and Valens, though he condemned their terms of communion as being in the extreme of rigour. It is recorded, however, by Marius Mercator that when Coelestius, the well-known disciple of Pelagius, visited Constantinople, Atticus expelled him from the city, and sent letters to the bishops of various sees, warning them against him. He was himself laid under sentence of excommunication by the western bishops for refusing to insert the name of the deceased Chrysostom in the diptychs or church registers. In the end, Atticus complied with the demand, and was again received into the communion of the western churches. He is said by Socrates to have foretold his own death: the prophecy, however, amounted to no more than this--that he told his friend Calliopius that he should not survive the ensuing autumn; and the event corresponded with his prognostication. He died in the twenty-first year of his episcopate. Gennadius informs us that he wrote, in opposition to the Nestorian doctrine, an excellent treatise de Fide et Virginitate, which he dedicated ad Reginas, that is, to the daughters of the eastern emperor, Arcadius. This work has perished; and nothing from the pen of Atticus has survived, except the following short pieces: 1. A letter to Cyril, bishop of Alexandria, exhorting him to follow his own example, and insert the name of Chrysostom in the sacred tables. This is preserved in the Church History of Nicephorus Callisti. 2. The above-mentioned letter to Calliopius. 3. A few inconsiderable fragments extant in the writing's of Marius Mercator and Theodoret, and the appendix to the acts of the council of Chalcedon. (Socrates, Hist. Eccl. 6.20, 7.25 ; Sozomen, Hist. Eccl. 8.27; Theodoret, Hist. Eccl. 5.3; Marius Mercator, Opera, ed. Baluz. pp. 133, 184, 185; Gennadius, de Viris Illustribus, 100.52; Nicephorus Callisti, 14.26.) [J.M.M]
a Roman knight, was one of the few companions whom Tiberius took with him when he retired from Rome to Capreae in A. D. 26. Six years afterwards, A. D. 32, Atticus fell a victim to the arts of Sejanus. (Tac. Ann. 4.58, 6.10.) He is supposed by Lipsius to be the same as the Atticus to whom two of Ovid's Epistles from Pontus (2.4, 7) are addressed.
of Pergamus, a pupil of the celebrated Apollodorus of Pergamus, who was also the teacher of Augustus. [Apollodorus, No. 22.] He was himself a teacher of rhetoric, and the author of several works, in which he explained the theory of his master. It would appear from his surname that he resided at Athens. (Strab. xiii. p.625; Quint. Inst. 3.1.18.)
the most celebrated Greek rhetorician of the second century of the Christian era, was born about A. D. 104, at Marathon in Attica. He belonged to a very ancient family, which traced its origin to the fabulous Aeacidae. His father, whose name was likewise Atticus, discovered on his estate a hidden treasure, which at once made him one of the wealthiest men of his age. His son Atticus Herodes afterwards increased this wealth by marrying the rich Annia Regilla. Old Atticus left in his will a clause, according to which every Athenian citizen was to receive yearly one mina out of his property; but his son entered into a composition with the Athenians to pay them once for all five minas each. As Atticus, however, in paving the Athenians, deducted the debts which some citizens owed to his father, they were exasperated against him, and, notwithstanding the great benefits he conferred upon Athens, bore him a grudge as long as he lived.
Atticus Herodes received a very careful education, and the most eminent rhetoricians of tire time, such as Scopelianus, Favorinus, Secundus, and Polemon, were among his teachers: he was instructed in the Platonic philosophy by Taurus Tyrius, and in the critical study of eloquence by Theagenes of Cnidus and Munatius of Tralles. After completing his studies, he opened a school of rhetoric at Athens, and afterwards at Rome also, where Marcus Aurelius, who ever after entertained a high esteem for him, was among his pupils. In A. D. 143 the emperor Antoninus Pius raised him to the consulship, together with C. Bellicins Torquatus; but as Atticus cared more for his fame as a rhetorician than for high offices, he afterwards returned to Athens, whither he was followed by a great number of young men, and whither L. Verus also was sent as his pupil by the emperor M. Aurelius. For a time Atticus was entrusted with the administration of the free towns in Asia; the exact period of his life when he held this office is not known, though it is believed that it was A. D. 125 when he himself was little more than twenty years of age. At a later time he performed the functions of high priest at the festivals celebrated at Athens in honour of M. Aurelius and L. Verus. The wealth and influence of Atticus Herodes did not fail to raise up enemies, among whom Theodotus arid Demostratus made themselves most conspicuous. His public as well as his private life was attacked in various ways, and numerous calumnies were spread concerning him. Theodotus and Demostratus wrote speeches to irritate the people against him, and to excite the emperor's suspicion respecting his conduct. Atticus Herodes, therefore, found it necessary to travel to Sirmium, where M. Aurelius was staying; he refuted the accusations of the Athenian deputies, and only some of his freedmen were punished. These annoyances at last appear to have induced him to retire from public life, and to spend his remaining years in his villa Cephisia, near Marathon, surrounded by his pupils. The emperor M. Aurelius sent him a letter, in which he assured him of his unaltered esteem. In the case of Atticus Herodes the Athenians drew upon themselves the just charge of ingratitude, for no man had ever done so much to assist his fellow-citizens and to embellish Athens at his own expense. Among the great architectural works with which he adorned the city, we may mention a race-course (stadium) of white Pentelic marble, of which ruins are still extant; and the magnificent theatre of Regilla, with a roof made of cedar-wood. His liberality, however, was not confined to Attica: at Corinth he built a theatre, at Olympia an aqueduct, at Delphi a race-course, and at Thermopylae a hospital. He further restored with his ample means several decayed towns in Peloponnesus, Boeotia, Euboea, and Epeirus, provided the town of Canusium in Italy with water, and built Triopium on the Appian road. It also deserves to be noticed, that he intended to dig a canal across the isthmus of Corinth, but as the emperor Nero had entertained the same plan without being able to execute it, Atticus gave it up for fear of exciting jealousy and envy. His wealth, generosity, and still more his skill as a rhetorician, spread his fame over the whole of the Roman world. He is believed to have died at the age of 76, in A. D. 180.
If we look upon Atticus Herodes as a man, it must be owned that there scarcely ever was a wealthy person who spent his property in a more generous, noble, and disinterested manner. The Athenians appear to have felt at last their own ingratitude; for, after his death, when his freedmen wanted to bury him, according to his own request, at Marathon, the Athenians took away his body, and buried it in the city, where the rhetorician Adrianus delivered the funeral oration over it. Atticus's greatest ambition was to shine as a rhetorician; and this ambition was indeed so strong, that on one occasion, in his early life, when he had delivered an oration before the emperor Hadrian, who was then in Pannonia, he was on the point of throwing himself into the Danube because his attempt at speaking had been unsuccessful. This failure, however, appears to have proved a stimulus to him, and he became the greatest rhetorician of his century. His success as a teacher is sufficiently attested by the great number of his pupils, most of whom attained some degree of eminence. His own orations, which were delivered extempore and without preparation, are said to have excelled those of all his contemporaries by the dignity, fullness, and elegance of the style. (Gel. 1.2, 9.2, 19.12.) Philostratus praises his oratory for its pleasing and harmonious flow, as well as for its simplicity and power. Works
The loss of the works of Atticus renders it impossible for us to form an independent opinion, and even if they had come down to us, it is doubtful whether we could judge of them as favourably as the ancients did; for we know, that although he did not neglect the study of the best Attic orators, yet he took Critias as his great model. Among his numerous works the following only are specified by the ancients: 1. Δόγοι αὐτοσχέδιοι, or speeches which he had delivered extempore. 2. Διαλέξεις, treatises or dialogues, one of which was probably the one mentioned in the Etymologicum Magnum (s. v. ἄρσην) περὶ γάμου συμβιώσεως. 3. Ἐφημερίδες, or diaries. 4. Ἐπιστολαί All these works are now lost. περὶ πολιτείας
There exists an oration περὶ πολιτείας, in which the Thebans are called upon to join the Peloponnesians in preparing for war against Archelaus, king of Macedonia, and which has come down to us under the name of Atticus Herodes. But the genuineness of this declamation is very doubtful; at any rate it has very little of the character which the ancients attribute to the oratory of Atticus.
The Defensio Palamedis, a declamation usually ascribed to Gorgias the Sophist, has lately been attributed to Atticus Herodes by H. E. Foss in his dissertation De Gorgia Leontino, &c. Halae, 1828, 8vo. p. 100, &c.; but his arguments are not satisfactory. Editions
The declamation περὶ πολιτείας is printed in the collections of the Greek orators, and also by R. Fiorillo in his Herodis Attici quae supersunt, admonitionibus illustr., Leipzig, 1801, 8vo., which work contains a good account of the life of Atticus Herodes. (Compare Philostratus, Vit. Soph. 2.1; Suid. s. v. Ἠρώδης; Westermann, Gesch. der Griech. Beredtsamk. § 90.) Triopian Inscriptions
At the beginning of the sixteenth century, 1607, two small columns with inscriptions, and two others of Pentelic marble with Greek inscriptions, were discovered on the site of the ancient Triopium, the country seat of Atticus, about three miles from Rome. The two former are not of much importance, but the two latter are of considerable interest. They are written in hexameter verse, the one consisting of thirty-nine and the other of fifty-nine lines. Some have thought, that Atticus himself was the author of these versified inscriptions; but at the head of one of them there appears the name Μαρκέλλου), and, as the style and diction of the other closely resemble that of the former, it has been inferred, that both are the productions of Marcellus of Sida, a poet and physician who lived in the reign of M. Aurelius. These inscriptions are known by the name of the Triopian inscriptions. Editions
They have often been printed and discussed, as by Visconti (Insscrioni grecche Triopee, con version ed osservazioni, Rome, 1794, fol.), Fiorillo (l.c.), in Brunck's Analecta (2.302), and in the Greek Anthology. (Append. 50 and 51, ed. Tauchnitz.) [L.S]
a senator and a man of praetorian rank, who swore that after the death of Augustus he saw the emperor ascending up to heaven. (D. C. 56.46; Suet. Aug. 100.)
a Platonic philosopher, lived in the second century of the Christian era, under the emperor M. Aurelius. (Syncell. vol. i. p. 666, ed. Dindorf.) Eusebius has preserved (Praep. Ev. 15.4-9, &c.) some extracts from his works, in which he defends the Platonic philosophy against Aristotle. Porphyry (Vit. Plotin. 100.14) makes mention of the ὑπομνήματα of a Platonic Atticus, but they may have been written by Herodes Atticus.
consul suffectus from the first of November, A. D. 69, declared in favour of Vespasian at Rome, and with the other partisans of Vespasian seized the Capitol. Here they were attacked by the soldiers of Vitellius ; the Capitol was burnt down, and Atticus, with most of the other leaders of his party, taken prisoner. Atticus was not put to death by Vitellius; and probably in order to obtain the pardon of the emperor, he admitted that he had set fire to the Capitol, as Vitellius was anxious that his party should not bear the odium of this deed. (Tac. Hist. 3.73-75; D. C. 65.17.)
was consul in the year (A. D. 65) in which the conspiracy of Piso was formed against Nero. Atticus was a man of firm character, and possessed great natural talents; Piso was afraid lest he might restore liberty or proclaim some one emperor. Although innocent he was put to death by Nero on the detection of the conspiracy. Atticus had been very intimate with the emperor, but had incurred his hatred, as he had taken no pains to disguise the contempt in which he held the emperor. He had still further increased the emperor's hatred by marrying Statilia Messallina, although he knew that Nero was among her lovers. (Tac. Ann. 15.48, 52, 68, 69.)
a disciple of Apollodorus of Pergamus. (Senec. Controv. 2.13. p. 184.) As he is mentioned only in this passage of Seneca, his name has given rise to considerable dispute. Spalding (ad Quintil. 3.1.18) conjectures that he was the son of M. Vipsanius Agrippa, who married the daughter of T. Pomponius Attics, and that he had the surname of Atticus in honour of his grandfather. Frandsen (M. Vipsanius Agrippa, p. 228), on the other hand, supposes him to have been the father of Vipsanius Agrippa. But both of these conjectures are unsupported by any evidence, and are in themselves improbable. We are more inclined to adopt Weichert's opinion (Caes. Augusti, &c. Reliquae, p. 83), that, considering the imperfect state of Seneca's text, we ought to read Dionysius in this passage instead of Vipsanius. [Atticus, Dionysius.] (Comp. Piderit, De Apollodoro Pergameno, &c. p. 16, &c.)
- , Αττικός, Athenian, Attic.
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…Non dubito fore plerosque, Attice, qui hoc genus scripturae leve et non satis dignum summorum virorum personis iudicent, cum relatum legent, quis…
Cornelius Nepos, Vitae
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…et quo iam nunc nos conferamus providendum est. Scr. in Cumano K. Mart a. . CICERO ATTICO SAL. o mirificum Dolabellam meum iam enim dico meum ; antea, crede mihi, subdubitabam. magnam ἀναθεώρησιν…
Cicero, Epistulae ad Atticum
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…data vi Idus Aprilis naribus Luc. Scr. Itinere circ. Non. Apr. a. . CICERO ATTICO SAL. utinam illum diem videam cum tibi agam gratias quod me vivere coegisti adhuc quidem valde me paenitet .…
Cicero, Epistulae ad Atticum
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…fort. in suburbano Siccae K. vesp. aut mane vi Non. Mai. a. . CICERO ATTICO SAL. ante quam a te proxime discessi, numquam mihi venit in mentem, quo plus insumptum in monimentum…
Cicero, Epistulae ad Atticum
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…alii nemini. rescribas velim hodie. Scr. in Tusculano x K. Quint. a. . CICERO ATTICO SAL. narro tibi, Quintus pater exsultat laetitia. scripsit enim filius se idcirco profugere ad Brutum voluisse quod…
Cicero, Epistulae ad Atticum
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…etsi more magis hoc quidem scribo quam quo te admonendum putem meaque omnia tuebere ; quae tibi ne ignota essent Attico mandavi ; a me autem, cum paulum oti nacti erimus, uberiores litteras exspectato. da operam ut valeas…
Cicero, Epistulae ad Familiares
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…probent. an tu, inquit, id laboras, si huic modo Bruto probaturus es Plane, inquam, Attice, disputationem hanc de oratore probando aut improbando multo malim tibi et Bruto placere, eloquentiam autem meam populo probari…
M. Tullius Cicero, Brutus
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…referret et quo. quod ubi audissem, si ille Appia veniret, ego Arpinum cogitabam. LIBER NONVS AD ATTICVM Scr. in Formiano prid. Non. Mart a. . CICERO ATTICO SAL. etsi cum tu has…
Cicero, Epistulae ad Atticum
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…patiamur intermitti litterulas. equidem non committam. Scr. Asturae it Id. Apr. a. . CICERO ATTICO S. D. spero tibi iam esse ut volumus, quoniam quidem ἠσίτησας quom leviter commotus esses ; sed…
Cicero, Epistulae ad Atticum
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…quo quid sperem non audeo scribere. Scr. in Tusculano v K. Quint. a. . CICERO ATTICO SAL. vi Kalend. accepi a Dolabella litteras. quarum exemplum tibi misi. in quibus erat omnia se…
Cicero, Epistulae ad Atticum
A Roman of an old and wealthy equestrian family, born B.C. 109. He received a good education in boyhood and youth, and went in the year B.C. 88 to Athens, where he lived until 65, devoting himself entirely to study, and much respected by the citizens for his generosity and cultivated refinement. In 65, he returned to Rome, to take possession of the inheritance left him by his uncle and adoptive father, Q. Caecilius. He now became Q. Caecilius Pomponianus. From this time onward he lived on terms of intimacy with men like Cicero, Hortensius, and Cornelius Nepos (who wrote a life of him which we still possess). He avoided public life and the strife of parties. This fact, in addition to his general amiability and good nature, enabled him during the Civil Wars to keep on the best of terms with the leaders of the conflicting parties—Cicero, Brutus, and Antonius. He died after a painful illness, of voluntary starvation, in the year B.C. 32.
Atticus was the author of several works, the most considerable of which was a history (Liber Annalis) dedicated to Cicero. This gave a short epitome of the bare events of Roman history down to B.C. 54, arranged according to the series of consuls and other magistrates, with contemporaneous notices. But his most important contribution to Latin literature was his edition of the letters which he had received from Cicero. He also did great service by setting his numerous slaves to work copying the writings of his contemporaries. In philosophy, he was an Epicurean. The fragments of the Liber Annalis will be found in Peter, Hist. Frag. 214.