[78] Tom. v., p. 442; ed. Basil.
[79] Galen, who is a most unexceptionable judge in such a case, says that the language of Hippocrates inclines to the Attic, and that some had held it to be Old Attic. (Tom. v., p. 525; ed. Basil.) Dionysius of Halicarnassus, another admirable critic, says that Herodotus is the most excellent standard of the Ionic (and so, by the way, Photius also says, under the head of Ctesias) and Thucydides of the Attic. (De Platon. Judicium.) Now, since we have already made it appear that there is a most striking similarity between the language of Hippocrates and Thucydides, the judgment of Dionysius is evidently in accordance with that of Galen on this point. Indeed, as briefly stated in the text, the Attic was nothing more than a new development of the Ionic, and scarcely more different from it than the English language in the age of Pope is from the same in the age of Milton. It is to be borne in mind that the name Ionian was originally applied to the Thracians and the inhabitants of Attica, who were evidently closely allied to one another in consanguinity. It was in Thrace that learning and civilization first sprang up under the auspices of Thamyris, Orpheus, and Musæus, by whom the elegant arts were transplanted to Athens. (See Hesychius, in voce Iones; Eustathius, ad Iliad., ii.; Diogenes Laertius, Prœfat.; also Hermes Philologus, p. 23, by the author of this disquisition, whose mind now reverts with great delight, ad studia quæ adolescentiam alebant.) The inhabitants of Asiatic Ionia and the adjoining islands were colonists from Attica. (Thucyd., i., 12; Herodotus, viii., 44; Heraclides, de Polit.) From what has been stated it will readily be understood that the only standard of polite Greek was the Ionic, with its offspring the Attic. The Æolic and Doric dialects, although used in certain scientific and popular compositions, such as Bucolics and certain philosophical treatises, were never looked upon as being fashionable and learned dialects.
[80] De Artic., i.
[81] See his Historia Literaria Hippocratis, in the Bibliotheca Græca of Albertus Fabricius, or in vol. i. of Kühn’s edition of Hippocrates.
[82] Galen, tom. v., p. 17; ed. Basil.
[83] Apologie, etc.
[84] Hippocratis nomine quæ circumferuntur scripta ad temporis rationes disposuit Christianus Petersen, p. prior. Hamburgi, 1839.
[85] Prædict., i.; Coacæ Prænot.; de Loc. in Hom.
[86] De Carne.; de Part. Sept.; de Part. Oct.; de Superf.; de Dent.
[87] De Flat.