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Classics
Classics, particularly within the
Western
University tradition, when used as a singular noun, means the study of
the language, literature, history, art, and other aspects of
Greek and
Roman culture during the time frame known as
classical antiquity. As a plural noun "classics"
can refer to texts written in the ancient Mediterranean world. The
study of classics is a primary subject for the
humanities, and the people reading classics are sometimes called
humanists.The word is derived from the
Latin
classicus which literally means "belonging to the highest
class of citizens". Furthermore, its meaning intimates "superiority,
authority and even perfection". "Classicus occurs first in
Aulus Gellius, a Roman author of the second century A. D. who in his
miscellany Noctes Atticae (19, 8, 15) refers to classicus
scriptor, non proletarius. He was ranking writers according to
the classification of the Roman taxation classes.
This method was started when the Greeks were constantly ranking
their cultural work. The word they used was
canon;
ancient Greek for a carpenter's rule. Moreover, early Chrisian Church
Fathers used this term to classify authoritative texts of the New
Testament. This rule further helped in the preservation of works since
writing platforms of vellum and papyrus and methods of reproduction
was not cheap. The title of canon placed on a work meant that
it would be more easily preserved for future generations. In modern
times, a
Western canon was collated that defined the best of
Western culture.
At the Alexandrian Library, the ancient scholars coined another
term for canonized authors, hoi enkrithentes; "the admitted"
or "the included".
Classical education was considered the best training for implanting
the life of moral excellence
arete (paideia) hence a good citizen. It furnished students with
intellectual and aesthetic appreciation for "the best which has been
thought and said in the world". Copleston, an Oxford classicist said
that classical education "communicates to the mind...a high sense of
honour, a disdain of death in a good cause, (and) a passionate
devotion to the welfare of one's country".
Cicero
commented, "All literature, all philosophical treatises, all the
voices of antiquity are full of examples for imitation, which would
all lie unseen in darkness without the light of literature".
Practically every university and college in England and America had
a classical department. Classical studies formed the basis for a
liberal arts education and were considered necessary for the
advancement and preservation of a country's liberty and Western
culture. Since the l960's, due to modern cultural attacks and lack of
interest, classical departments have been closing.
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Paideia
Classic definition of republic
Greek language,
Greek mythology,
Greek literature
Greek architecture
Ancient Greek culture is not monolithic: it consists of two
completely different strains corresponding to two different peoples:
the
Ionian and the
Dorian.
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Romanitas
Roman Kingdom,
Roman Republic,
Roman Empire
Roman Army
Roman mythology
Latin,
Latin literature,
Rhetoric
- Post-classical scholarship
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Humanism
Philology
Classics can also mean (typically in non-academic
contexts)
classic books. In ancient China these might include:
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Chinese classic texts
Chinese philosophy
Western Classicists
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Karl Otfried Müller German,
Theodor Mommsen,
Thomas Tyrwhitt,
Pierre Henri Larcher,
Ada AdlerDanish,
Werner JaegerGerman,
Edith HamiltonAmerican,
Bernard Knox, (A. E. Taylor), (Gregory Vlastos)
Sayings
- "Nor can I do better, in conclusion, than impress upon you the
study of Greek literature, which not only elevates above the vulgar
herd but leads not infrequently to positions of considerable
emolument."
—Thomas Gaisford, Christmas sermon, Christ Church, Oxford.
See also
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