Classics Day 2025
How Ancient Greece changed the world
Saturday 5 April 2025
A stimulating day of lectures presented by some of the UK’s most important classicists. This year's lectures will focus on how Ancient Greece has significantly contributed to the development of Western civilisations.
City Lit has organised a star-studded line-up of speakers for the event: historian, author, and broadcaster Bettany Hughes OBE, classicist and art historian Professor Caroline Vout, University of Cambridge, and head of arts at King's College and art historian Professor Hugh Bowden, and British Museum curator and lecturer in ancient history Dr Simon Glenn.
Join us at the British Museum on Saturday 5th April.
A stimulating day of lectures presented by some of the UK’s most important classicists. This year we take inspiration from the British Museum’s amazing exhibition "Legion. Life in the Roman army."
Immerse yourself in the life and death struggles of the ancient world, understand the daily life of soldiers and their loved ones, the brutality of the battlefield, and a world where war and peace were in constant flux.
City Lit has organised a star-studded line-up of speakers for the event: best-selling author Professor Ian Morris, Stanford University; writer and classicist Dr. Daisy Dunn; classicist and art historian Professor Caroline Vout, University of Cambridge; and the curator of "Legion” exhibition Richard Abdy.
Join us at the British Museum on Saturday 15th June. Sign up for all our Classics Day activities on our website here. City Lit is also offering a series of online and in-person lectures throughout the week.
View the programme here
In partnership with The British Museum
At The British Museum
Classics Day
Classics Day is the annual collaboration between City Lit and the British Museum.
| Date: | Saturday 5 April 2025 |
| Location: | The British Museum |
At City Lit
Lectures and Seminars
City Lit hosts talks, lectures and seminars in Classical and Ancient Languages and Ancient Civilisations throughout the year.
| Date: | May - June 2025 |
| Location: | City Lit and online |
Classics Day Guest Speakers
The day will consist of guest lectures by Bettany Hughes, Caroline Vout, Hugh Bowden and Dr Simon Glenn to discuss the role that peace and war played for the people in various parts of the ancient world.
Bettany Hughes OBE
The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.
| Date: | 05/04/2025 |
|
Time: |
10:55-12:20 |
Professor Hugh Bowden
Alexander the Great and India.
| Date: | 05/04/2025 |
|
Time: |
13:40-14:35 |
Dr Simon Glenn
Alexander: the spread of Greek culture, economics & a single currency.
Photo credit: Julien Olivier
| Date: | 05/04/2025 |
|
Time: |
14:35-15:25 |
Professor Caroline Vout
How Greek art changed the world.
| Date: | 05/04/2025 |
|
Time: |
15:35-16:25 |
Short courses
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Course
The Iliad reading group (in translation)
Come and explore Homer's great epic tale in translation.
| Start date: | 07/05/2025 |
| Time: | 15:30-17:30 |
| Location: |
Online |
Course
Spectacles of the Ancient World
This course explores some of the most elaborate and powerful displays of the Graeco-Roman world.
| Start date: | 08/05/2025 |
| Time: | 13:00-14:30 |
| Location: | City Lit |
Course
Looking for the Golden Fleece: Jason and the Argonauts
Come and explore the journey of the Argonauts and discover Jason.
| Start date: | 03/06/2025 |
| Time: | 15:10-17:10 |
| Location: | Online |
Lecture
War and Peace in Roman Love Poetry
| Date: | 11/06/2024 |
| Time: | 18:00-20:00 |
| Location: | Online |
Lecture
Paintings of peace and war: Rubens's creative take on the Classical world
| Date: | 11/06/2024 |
| Time: | 14:00-16:00 |
| Location: | City Lit |
Lecture
The Roman legion in the Gospel of Mark
| Date: | 12/06/2024 |
| Time: | 18:00-19:30 |
| Location: | City Lit |
Lecture
War and peace in the art of Napoleonic France
| Date: | 13/06/2024 |
| Time: | 11:00-12:30 |
| Location: | Online |
Lecture
Memory politics in war and peace: recent and contemporary cases
| Date: | 13/06/2024 |
| Time: | 18:00-20:00 |
| Location: | Online |
Lecture
Ancient Greek: a taster
Get a taste of one of the most important languages of the ancient world.
| Date: | 14/06/2024 |
| Time: | 10:30-12:30 |
| Location: | Online |
Lecture
Ancient Beauty – Modern Stories: Helen from Homer to Modern Film and Literature
Come and discover how Helen has been represented in both books and films.
| Date: | 28/06/2022 |
| Time: | 11:00-12:00 |
| Location: | City Lit |
Lecture
Power, Allegory and and Resistance: Iranian Cinema in the Last Years of the Shah
This course will examine the context of 1970s Iranian cinema, in which a New Wave movement emerged under the brutal, autocratic regime of the Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.
| Date: | 28/06/2022 |
| Time: | 14:00-16:00 |
| Location: | City Lit |
Lecture
Bathing and washing in ancient Rome
Find out more about the washing and toilet habits that were common in ancient Rome.
| Date: | 29/06/2022 |
| Time: | 14:30-16:30 |
| Location: | Online |
Lecture
Disastrous wealth: resources waste and sustainability in ancient Greek Drama
How would ancient Greece fare if we were to compare it to today's standards? Come and find out in this fascinating session.
| Date: | 29/06/2022 |
| Time: | 18:00-19:00 |
| Location: | Online |
Lecture
The enduring fascination of Medea: adapting Euripides for the modern stage
Euripides’ Medea has fascinated audiences for centuries, its tragic action confronting spectators with scenarios almost too terrible to contemplate. Successive generations have adapted the play for their own times, ensuring its place in theatrical repertoires and the cultural consciousness.
| Date: | 30/06/2022 |
| Time: | 12:30-14:30 |
| Location: | City Lit |
Lecture
Showing the goods: luxury in Greek vascular painting
A the saying goes, “what’s the point of being rich if you cannot brag about it?”; well, the Ancient Greeks were masters at this art to the point of depicting it in plain sight across their vases and vessels. Let us look through this kaleidoscope into the lives of Athenian well-to-dos to see what form their wealth assumed and how its depiction became a synonym for luxury across the Mare Nostrum.
| Date: | 30/06/2022 |
| Time: | 11:00-13:00 |
| Location: | Online |
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