or CLASSICAL, an epithet applied chiefly to authors read in the classes at schools. This term seems to owe its origin to Tullius Servius, who, in order to make an estimate of every person's estate, divided the Roman people into six portions, which he called classes. The estate of the first class was not to be under L200, and these by way of eminence were called classic, classics; hence authors of the first rank came to be called classics, while all the rest were said to be infra classem. Thus Aristotle is a classic author in philosophy, and Aquinas in school divinity.