Why Classical Civilisation is Great I have studied both Classical Civilisation (for A Level and BA) and Classics (for MA and PhD) and love both subjects a great deal. However, my education in Classical Civilisation has arguably been the most significant in my life and continues to guide me in my pursuit of Classics. It’s a fact that many are uncomfortable to talk about, but there are some in Classics who hold Classical Civilisation in disdain. Unfortunately, some of them have been Classics and even Classical Civilisation students. Here’s just one particularly crazy story: I was once told by a lecturer (and I’m quoting here) “do you actually study Classics? Oh, Classical Civilisation… Hmm, isn’t that when you learn what the Romans used to eat?” That remark was particularly funny in hindsight, because it was intended as an insult, but I would years later discuss with Andrew Wallace-Hadrill, one of the greats of our discipline, about what the Romans ate at Pompeii. I
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Classics Students and Latin Proficiency I started learning Latin at 19, and while I’ve read hundreds of lines and devoted many years to improving my skills, I still don’t consider myself fluent. For many years, this was something which always bugged me, and I thought maybe I was incompetent or just really bad at learning languages. However, I’ve learnt over the years that many other Classics students have the same struggles which I faced in my studies, it’s just not something I commonly see expressed or talked about. To be fair, my evidence has been anecdotal: I heard such stories when talking to close friends or those who I’ve met at conferences. Consequently, it was something I always thought a lot about, but since I don’t believe there’s much or any research on the topic, I would never actually talk seriously about. However, one day I decided to run a poll on Twitter to try and get some more concrete evidence. The statistics are of course not completely reliable, becau