A running defense of Classics, defined here broadly as the study of the literature, history and archaeology of the ancient Mediterranean, c. 1200 BC- AD 700. Much of this is embodied in Greek and Latin literature, although a broad definition of Classics...1/

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will be interested in Egyptians, Celts, Jews, Persians, Carthaginians, etc. Notably, I am not going to make moral or aesthetic judgements. I do not think it worthwhile to argue that Latin literature is somehow better, or Greek art more beautiful, etc.2/

I think a lot of Greek art is great, and some is mediocre. Most Latin literature is mediocre, although some is great. My argument instead rests on why it is important and worthwhile for an educated person to have passing familiarity with Mediterranean antiquity. 3/

An educated person should in no small part be trained to navigate today's complex and challenging world. But the study of a past world offers very useful perspectives and panoramas as we face down both present and future challenges. 4/

1) Complexity. Today's world is complex. But it has been complex for a while. Indeed, the ancient Mediterranean gives us perhaps the first complex societies for which we have substantial written documentation 5/

Not the first complex societies, mind you. And not the first societies with writing. But the corpus that survives for the Mediterranean is orders of magnitude greater than, say, the Bronze Age. 6/

The rich detail of this corpus-epic poetry, theatrical scripts, histories, religious scriptures, philosophical treatises, medical handbooks, etc., means we can reconstruct the complexity of Mediterranean societies in greater detail than any complex society that had come before 7

Furthermore, many of these genres developed precisely to deal with the complexity of this world. Herodotus writes his history to explain the world not just of the Greeks, but of Persians, Scythians and Egyptians. 8/

The first philosophers are trying to not just make legible this complex world, say through Aristotelian classifications, but also embrace its complexity, so that a philosophic dialogue is less a focused argument than a meandering and nuanced journey. 9/

The historian Polybius seeks to link up disparate political narratives in Spain, Africa, Greece and Asia, all now touched by the growing power of Rome. 10/

In ancient literature we see people trying ––and often failing –– to make sense of the complex situations around them. And in considering their flawed efforts, we train our minds to do the same with the mind-boggling complexity of the present. 11/

2. Religion. We live in a world very much defined by Judaism, Christian and Islam, all religions with deep roots in Mediterranean antiquity. Even if you do not practice these religions, they impact our politics, culture and society. 12/

Second Temple Judaism is the product of Achaemenid imperial power. Later Jewish texts, including the Book of Daniel are produced under the Seleucid empire. The Hanukkah is the result of a revolt against the Seleucids. 13/

The destruction of Jerusalem, including the Temple, by Rome creates the preconditions for rabbinic Judaism to develop in the diaspora. If you want to understand modern Judaism, you need a basic grounding in Mediterranean history and culture. 14/

Of course, Christianity is perhaps the most Roman of religions; an eschatological response to Roman power, its central figure executed by a Roman equestrian governor. 15/

Jesus spoke Aramaic, an Achaemenid bureaucratic language. But the NT is written in Koine Greek. If you have any hope of learning to read the NT in the original Greek, then you will want to make sure there are Classics departments out there to teach this. 16/

With Constantine, Christianity is the official Roman religion. The Nicene creed, recited every Sunday by millions of Christians, is produced when the Roman emperor brings together bishops from across the Mediterranean to hash out exactly what they believe. 17/

If you want to understand Christianity today (as either a believer or non-)you pretty quickly get to the question of origins, and these are firmly rooted in ancient history, culture and society. 18/

Finally, Islam emerges only at the very end, often times outside of there period conventionally covered by Classics, although falling well within the purview of historians of Late Antiquity. Islam itself developed from the reception of Jewish and Christian ideology and fervor 19

down the trade routes of the Red Sea, which connected India, Arabia and East Africa with the Mediterranean. It was a global trade route that doubled as an information hub. 20/

The Rise of Islam also reshapes the ancient Near East, shrinking the still substantial Eastern Roman Empire and destroying the Sassanid Persian Empire. 21/

While the emergence of Islam in many ways heralds a new "medieval" political and religious order, the origins of Islam rest on ancient religion, trade and geopolitics. 22/

3. Democracy and Republicanism. The city-states of the Mediterranean give us the first real insight to how government by the people might work, particularly the mechanics of the Athenian democracy and the Roman Republic.23/

It is easy to point out fundamental moral and practical flaws in these systems, including disenfranchisement of women and the existence of massive slave populations alongside empowered free male citizens. 24/

Still, most human history is a history of monarchy. And Putin, Xi Jinping and Trump all remind us that the threat of autocracy is very real. Studying how these systems worked, and why they failed, is an urgent exercise as we struggle to shore up democracy in the 21st century. 25