ABSTRACT
In late Antiquity the word hellō nismos signals the essence of Greek culture, more especially the effort to cleanse and protect the ‘pure’ Greek language-it is not until post-classical times that a common Greek literary language (koinō ) was formed on the basis of the Attic tongue. Towards the end of the ancient world the word can simply be used about paganism as opposed to Christianity. ‘Hellenistic’ did not come to designate the period from the death of Alexander the Great to the Roman Empire (Augustus) until one century ago.
