Few academic subjects offer as broad a range of disciplines as Classics, and our department provides a rich variety of activities and opportunities beyond our timetabled lessons to fully explore the wealth of our subject – there is much more to Classics than amo, amas, amat and all that! Not only can we introduce and explore the foundational works of Western literature, but we are also able to engage with classical art and architecture, learn the rudiments of archaeology, study the origins and consequences of ancient philosophy, of politics, and of many other academic disciplines, all while investigating some of the most colourful historical figures and influential events, whose legacies still reverberate through our modern world.
Odyssean wanderings: One of the most important ways in which we seek to deepen our understanding of the ancient world is through our trips and expeditions. Currently we offer a senior classics expedition to the Mediterranean, which is open to all classicists from Year 10 onwards; over the past four years we have visited an exciting array of sites in Greece, Turkey, Crete and, most recently, Italy. This visit allowed us to witness the full extent of the classical world and its remnants, whether in the beautiful painted tombs of the Lucanians, the eerie ruins of Herculaneum, or the architectural magnificence of Paestum’s temples and Rome’s Colosseum. In all our trips we seek to find sites which provide insights into the rise, height and decline of the classical world, often leading us into buildings with long and varied histories – churches built from the fragments of ancient temples, or swimming pools formed by the collapse of ancient colonnades – and our next expedition, to Croatia, provides perhaps the most famous example of this in the Mediterranean: Diocletian’s palace, once a
retirement home for an emperor, but subsequently a fortress, refuge and ultimately market-place! ‘Coming face to face with the ruins really opened up new ways of thinking about the topics I’m studying.’ Luc, Year 13
In the shadow of the emperors.
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