Assignment for Feb 2

1. Read the little Classics book.
2. Read Mary Beard's essay.
3. Consider the major premise: Classics is not merely the study of old, but the study of the gap between that world and ourselves.
4. Read the Oxford Classical Dictionary entries on Catullus and Horace and Claudius.
5. Look at same entries in Oxford Companion to English Literature.
6. Write three questions that I would pose to each of the individuals on three occasions (27 questions total):
  1) In 41 CE, Claudius became Emporer. At the press conference for that occasion.
  2) 1776: Philadelphia: Interview a group of classicaly educated white British men who are redefining the government structures as a new nation whose political system draws heavily on Greek and Roman republican models.
  3) 2012: American undergraduates and graduate students begin a branch of Occupy called Occupy Academia which demands that classics gets more, rather than less, attention at colleges and universities.
7. Prepare to perform as one of the three people in class. We will role play the different press conferences. Use the impersonation principles - you don't know anything more than Catullus (e.g.) would have. Also, write the questions as a peer of the time.

What is classical reception?  It is not THE classical tradition. The Classical Tradition has all the social baggage that comes with study Greece and Rome. The phrase has been faulted for deemphasizing the peoplehood of those who use it.

Horace's father was born a slave and was later freed. He was about 20 years younger than Catullus.