A CLASSICAL DICTIONARY CONTAINING BRIEF AND ACCURATE ACCOUNTS OF Edited with Introduction by EDWARD S. ELLIS, A. M. PHILADELPHIA THE PENN PUBLISHING COMPANY 1900 reclassed Sextens ves 14, 192687K INTRODUCTION. THE word classic or classical is defined as pure, refined; conformed to the best and most perfect standard; also pertaining to the ancient Greek and Latin authors, or rendered famous by association with ancient writers, as "classic ground." The ancient Romans were divided into six classes. Those of the highest class were called classici, and from this the term came to signify the highest and purest class of writers in any language, though at first applied only to the most esteemed Greek and Latin authors. Whether an ancient writer should be ranked as a classic is not determined (as it would seem ought to be the case) by what he wrote, but by the period in which he wrote. The classical age of Greek literature begins with Homer, the earliest Greek writer whose works are extant, and extends probably to the time of the Roman emperor Antonine, although signs of decadence began to appear about 300 B. C. The Latin classical period is not so extended, its earliest writer being Plautus, and it came to an end about 200 A.D. There are some, however, who include Claudian, born near 365 A.D., among the classics. Humanism is that theory of education which aims to give a symmetrical development to the intellectual and moral powers by means of the study of the classical literature and arts, or more largely the study of the classics, or the culture of belles-lettres in general. The history of Humanism divides itself into four distinct periods. I. The formative period, extending from the fifth century before to the fifth century after Christ. II. The period of the Middle Ages. III. The Renaissance or revival of learning, extending from the beginning of the fourteenth to the end of the eighteenth century. IV. The period of philological science, embracing a portion of the eighteenth and the nineteenth centuries. I. The Formative Period.-The systematic use of literary studies in education appears to have begun among the ancients about the fifth century B.C. The ridiculed sophists and rhetoricians gave a new direction to education by their attempt to make it more practical, thus greatly helping all the arts connected with literature, -as grammar, rhetoric, logic, lexicography, etc. Studies were expanded after the founding of Alexandria. The scholarly investigation and explanation of the literary monuments of the past began and were pressed by the professors and librarians of Alexandria. Toward the close of the second century B.C., the Romans began to investigate Greek education, and during the following century the Roman methods were remodeled along the Greek lines. The third and fourth centuries A.D. may be considered the golden age of professors. By the close of the fourth century a regular system had been formulated, |