“The study of history is the best medicine for a sick mind; for in 

history, you have a record of the infinite variety of human experience

plainly set out for all to see; and in that record, you can find for 

yourself and your country both examples and warnings: fine things to 

take as models, base things rotten through and through to avoid.”

– Livy, prologue to Ab Urbe Condita

When I tell people that I’m a double major in archaeology and 

classics, they generally ask, “What is classics?” The simple answer is

that classics is the study of the history, language, literature, and 

philosophy of the ancient Mediterranean. The more important answer, 

however, is that classics is the study of the people and ideas that 

fundamentally shaped Western culture.

Classics studies the intellectual and historical traditions of ancient

Greece and Rome, civilizations that laid the foundation for the ways 

we still think, speak, and learn today. Like Livy, one of Rome’s 

ancient historians, classicists seek to understand the past and learn 

from it in the present. Classical education – an education studying 

ancient history, language, literature, art, and philosophy – used to 

be a standard part of higher education. These subjects constituted the

core of the liberal arts, or the fields of study considered necessary 

and helpful for free people, and as such have been a crucial component

of American education from the very beginning of our nation. After 

all, what person wouldn’t want to learn about the people and events 

that set the stage for the world he or she lives in?

As it turns out, many people don’t. Over the past few centuries, 

classics have plummeted from a standard part of the college curriculum

to an obscure field of study and are disappearing from universities 

across the country.

I chose to come to the University of Evansville because it had a 

program in classics in addition to one in archaeology, which was an 

incredibly rare and valuable combination for an undergraduate 

institution. What I had no inkling of at the time was that I would be 

the last person to graduate from the classics program at UE, due to 

the major being cut. Two whirlwind years of college later, I have 

almost all my courses completed. I have been undoubtedly blessed to be

able to still get my classics degree and learn from so many amazing 

professors. Nevertheless, I can’t help but feel sorry for the future 

students who will never be able to study classics at UE.

As I wrap up my last few undergraduate classics courses, I will be 

bidding a temporary farewell to classics, at least as far as formal 

education goes. However, I have hope for classics, both in my future 

and for other future students. This hope comes from a resurgence of 

classical education – not in colleges, but in primary and secondary 

schools. Private and public classical schools have grown in both 

number and enrollment in the past decades, especially after the 

COVID-19 pandemic. These schools allow students to study contemporary 

school subjects in the context of their traditional roots and are 

known for their high academic standards and outstanding student 

success rates.

While it is too soon to say what place classics will have in my future

– whether in graduate school, a teaching job, or personal research and

reading – I can say with confidence that it will play a role in the 

story of my life. I feel it’s the least I can do, considering my life 

is part of a much bigger story that, in many ways, flows from the 

ancient ideas and people that the classics introduced to me. So, while

I am sad that Classics’ time at the University of Evansville is 

ending, I can’t help but feel excited that for me and so many others 

across the globe, the adventure that is classics is only just 

beginning.