Notes on the history of ancient classicism

Abstract

The article discusses the genesis of classicism in the Antiquity. At first, we give a brief retrospective review of the concept of “classic” until to the Renaissance, then the emergence on this concept in Aulus Gellius and Cicero. Further, we present a retrospective history of the classical tendency on the example of the disputes between Asians and Atticists, neoterics and lovers of old poetry, and in the ancient attitude towards the plastic arts. Hereafter the article focuses on the Hellenistic poets and philologists and, finally, we trace the origin of the classical tendency in the classical age – particularly, the creation of lists of «selected writers», the development of artistic canons and the relationship between classicism in arts and the pursuit of the old and «good» mores.