When you hear the word "classics," what jumps to mind? Literature over the centuries? Famous authors? For people entering university to study "classics," it means something quite specific. Classics is typically defined as the interdisciplinary study of the ancient Greek and Roman worlds, their interactions and exchanges with other ancient cultures, and their resonance to contemporary times. The curriculum for aspiring classicists is academically rigorous, with study in languages (Greek and Latin), literature, history, material culture, archaeology, philosophy, and more. Greek and Roman culture bequeathed an intellectual, political, and artistic heritage to the Western world that historians still glory in studying.

In an Intercollegiate Studies Institute article, Bruce S. Thornton, a classicist at California State University, Fresno, expands on the important role the discipline plays in Western education and culture, since "a familiarity with classics ...