1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Atthis

ATTHIS (an adjective meaning “Attic”), the name given to a monograph or special treatise on the religious and political history, antiquities and topography of Attica and Athens. During the 4th and 3rd centuries B.C., a class of writers arose, who, making these subjects their particular study, were called atthidographi, or compilers of atthides. The first of these was Clidemus or Clitodemus (about 378 B.C.); the last, Ister of Cyrene (died 212 B.C.); the most important was Philochorus (first half of the 3rd century B.C.), of whose work considerable fragments have been preserved. The names of the other atthidographi known to us are Phanodemus, Demon, Androtion, Andron, Melanthius. They laid no claim to literary skill; their style was monotonous and soon became wearisome. They were in fact chroniclers or annalists—not historians. Their only object was to set down, in plain and simple language, all that seemed worthy of note in reference to the legends, history, constitution, religion and civilization of Attica. They followed the order of the olympiads and archons, and their work was supported by the authority of original documents, monuments and inscriptions. Their writings were much used by historians, as well as by the scholiasts and grammarians.

Fragments in Müller, Fragmenta Historicorum Graecorum, i.