Classics

Gettysburg College's Department of Classics offers both major and minor programs in Classical Studies.  Studying ancient languages helps us to understand our own language more clearly and to express ourselves in English with greater precision and persuasive power. Classical literature not only offers the opportunity to examine Greek and Roman cultures through the observations and sentiments of their own writers but may also confront us with such issues as political realism and ethical idealism on a public level and love and death on a personal one.

Philosophical texts help us to develop logical and nuanced thinking about theoretical and everyday matters and directly engage us in leading examined lives. History, mythology, and archaeology combine examination of texts with study of material culture, that is, of physical remains from ancient civilizations, such as buildings, aqueducts, pottery, and inscriptions. A subject of study in their own right, the classical civilizations of the Mediterranean basin also offer a basis for evaluating and understanding contemporary values and experience.