[16]
The distinction between the Attic and the Asiatic
schools takes us back to antiquity. The former were
regarded as concise and healthy, the latter as empty
and inflated: the former were remarkable for the
absence of all superfluity, while the latter were
deficient alike in taste and restraint. The reason
for this division, according to some authorities,
among them Santra, is to be found in the fact that,
as Greek gradually extended its range into the
neighbouring cities of Asia, there arose a class of
men who desired to distinguish themselves as orators
before they had acquired sufficient command of the
language, and who consequently began to express
by periphrases what could have been expressed
directly, until finally this practice became an ingrained habit.
Quintilian. With An English Translation. Harold Edgeworth Butler. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1922.
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