rhetoric
Atticism vs. Asianism
ἀττικισμός / ἀσιανισμός
Should prose be lean and Athenian or lush and rhythmical? An ancient style war that defined what good writing means.
In the Greek-speaking world of the late Hellenistic and Roman eras, critics fought over the ideal of good prose. The "Atticists" demanded the spare, disciplined purity of the classical Athenian orators, especially Lysias and Demosthenes, while their opponents embraced the "Asianic" manner: ornate, rhythmical, emotionally charged, and exuberantly full. Cicero made this quarrel central to his own self-defense in the Brutus and the Orator, and it shaped centuries of teaching about taste, restraint, and excess in writing.
Where this idea shows up
1 Greek sourceWhere to read it
- Institutio Oratoria95 CEQuintilian· Rome