Classics and Ancient Mediterranean Studies

To read the works of Homer and Plato, of Vergil and Tacitus, or the Old and New Testaments whether in English translation or, better still, in the original language is an exciting intellectual experience. If learning another language is, to a certain extent, becoming another person, then learning the classical languages is to be transported back in time two millennia or more, to gain a perspective from which to isolate and verify the human constants that transcend time and place. At the same time, since we stand in a direct line of tradition from the classical and biblical world, knowledge of that world affords us a very practical understanding of the roots of Western literature, philosophy, and institutions.