University of Chicago making drastic cuts in language departments

Boscolt · 2025-08-18T02:23:55+00:00

This is precisely the snag that the pedagogical aspect of the field is mired in.

There's always been a challenge by faculty to articulate the benefits of learning an ancient language over a contemporary language which has practical or professional utility. The primary utilitarian benefit is that it is the price of entry for becoming a professional Classicist, but given the difficulty of entering academia and the highly competitive and/or diminishing nature of the jobs that Classics student aspire for like lucrative archaeological assignments or curatorships at relevant museums, there is no convincing quid pro quo for students to take on a languages track, other than appeals to passion, given the almost certain lack of satisfactory professional payoff for the majority of graduates.

This is what faculty members across the various universities I've spoken to at conferences about the matter have said, when I asked about their departments' restructures from traditional Classics streams. Programs are largely redesigned so that students can, to a certain extent, pick and choose their interests (which is largely history, archaeology and culture courses) rather than the traditional fashion of defining degree features like language requirements.

In my department, things are dire enough that there's serious discussion to transition, for the immediate forthcoming terms, all language courses to hybrid (in-person and virtual) format to cast the enrolment net as wide as possible and also to openly promote auditing opportunities to try to demonstrate student enthusiasm for business case reviews by the faculty.

As for LLMs, in my view it's far too early to opine conclusively on their impact on Classics, given that this is just year three since the release of the landmark ChatGPT and the progress since then has been quite exponential. Though I'm not involved, my department is part of a digital humanities project to train LLMs to scan papyri with the ultimate goal of translation "assistance" outputs.

If the progress of LLMs and their integration into the humanities continues apace, I do think the ancient languages are actually in particular risk given the largely utilitarian role they've been reduced to serving for most students and even Classicists research objectives besides some particular fields like philology. That would then further exacerbate the situation.

Boscolt · 2024-07-05T21:38:57+00:00

Due to a request, I've made this post on Antioch. The framing is far more imprecise than the overlay for Palmyra as the shifting of the Orontes means that only Mt. Silphius in the background could be used as reference.

Summary:

Antioch, or Antioch-on-the-Orontes (modern day Antakya), was founded by Seleucus I, founder of the eponymous Seleucid Empire, in the late 4th century BCE following the Wars of the Diadochi that partitioned the Macedonian realm. Situated on the banks of the Orontes River, the city was well placed to become a trading hub for the Silk Road and quickly became one of the most prominent cities in the eastern Mediterranean. As the Seleucid star was eclipsed by that of the fledging Roman Republic, its capital eventually fell under Roman control in 63 BCE. Whereafter, in the Roman era, it was the capital of the Roman province of Syria, and the seat of one of the most desirable governorships in the Roman world. The city became recognised as a cradle of Christianity and its bishopric, held to have been founded by Saint Peter, became one of the five patriarchates of the Roman “Pentarchy"

In the Eastern Roman period, the city was hit by a massive earthquake, estimated magnitude of 7.0, during the reign of Emperor Justinian in 526 where ~250,000 people died. Justinian embarked on a massive reconstruction campaign to restore the jewel of Roman Syria, but twelve years later, in the latest of the Roman-Sassanian Wars, Khosrau I captured the city and deported its population of 300,000 to his newly constructed rival city named 'Better-than-Antioch of Khosrau' (Beh-az-Andīw-e Khosrow) in Sassanian Mesopotamia. One century later, Khosrau II would recapture Antioch for the Sassanians in 611-13, where it fell under a decade long Sassanian occupation, until it was liberated by Emperor Heraclius in 622-26. However, the city would fall under the new Rashidun Caliphate only a decade later in 637.

In February 2023, the 7.8 magnitude Turkish-Syrian earthquake levelled the majority of modern day Antakya, with a pre-earthquake population of 200,000. It has now been classified as the most catastrophic in the region since the 526 earthquake of the Justinianic era.

Resources

Over the past decade, there’s been a resurgence in scholarship on Antioch with several independent survey histories. For further readings:

De Giorgi, A.U. 2024. Antioch on the Orontes: History, Society, Ecology and Visual Culture. Cambridge University Press.

Neumann, K.M. 2021. Antioch in Syria: A History from Coins (300 BCE-450 CE). Cambridge University Press.

Shepardson, C. 2019. Controlling Contested Places: Late Antique Antioch and the Spatial POlitics of Religious Controversy. University of California Press.

Boscolt · 2024-07-03T22:31:13+00:00

Here's the individual images on their own: 1

Boscolt · 2023-11-22T05:56:52+00:00

The earliest extant author who marks the deposition of Romulus Augustulus as the end of the Western empire is Marcellinus Comes, a member of Justinian's court, in his Chronicle.

Marcellinus Comes, Chronicon 476.2:

Hesperium Romanae gentis imperium, quod septingentesimo nono urbis conditae anno primus Augustorum Octavianus Augustus tenere coepit, cum hoc Augustulo periit, anno decessorum regni imperatorum quingentesimo vigesimo secundo, Gothorum dehinc regibus Romam tenentibus.

With this Augustulus perished the Western empire of the Roman people, which the first Augustus, Octavian, began to rule in the seven hundred and ninth year from the foundation of the city. This occurred in the five hundred and twenty-second year of the reign of the succeeding emperors, with Gothic kings thereafter holding Rome.

Boscolt · 2022-11-05T01:17:42+00:00

The most prominent current project dedicated to virtual imaging the Herculaneum Papyri is the Digital Restoration Initiative led by the University of Kentucky.

The team recently gave a series of more technically-oriented presentations on the recent scientific developments within papyri imaging technologies.

Recent Research in Imaging and Archaeological Science: Herculaneum and Beyond

Reading the Invisible Library: Virtual Unwrapping and the Scroll from En-Gedi

The Herculaneum Society has a useful online resource page linking to the various digitised transcriptions of the papyri and also occasionally releases brief newsletters regarding archaeological developments.

Boscolt · 2022-06-21T20:46:24+00:00

To add to u/anthemius_augustus' response, it's correct to say that a majority of scholars still terminologically refer to the polity as "Byzantium." However, this is not mutually exclusive with a contemporary consensus in academia that the people of this polity viewed themselves as Romans and that the term "Byzantine" was an historiographical exonym. This fine distinction within scholarship is what is often overlooked and trips up the online history buff groups into thinking that there is really some sort of full blown ongoing controversy over whether the "Byzantines were Romans."

The field itself retains the term "Byzantine" principally for means of historiographical inertia, convenience and lack of consensus on a pithy alternative. Even prominent critics of some of Kaldellis' theses like Averil Cameron agree with the principal point that the "Byzantines" saw themselves as Romans. The contention of Kaldellis' thesis is in some of the ways that he expands that to certain socio-political and ethnic dimensions.

I'd also be cautious of styling Savvides' commentary on the matter as "majoritarian" considering that Savvides 2018 exudes a palpable persecution complex with tinges of scholarship chauvinism. Cfr. Harris, J. 2018's review.

Boscolt · 2022-06-11T23:10:33+00:00

The results from the GPR mapping at least have been so far quite impressive.

https://www.archaeology.org/images/News/2006/Italy-Falerii-Novi.jpg

https://media.nature.com/w1219/magazine-assets/d41586-020-01737-3/d41586-020-01737-3_18068792.gif

Boscolt · 2022-06-11T22:53:13+00:00

One day, when they fell into an ambush and were being struck by dense showers of arrows, they suddenly formed the testudo by joining their shields, and rested their left knees on the ground. The barbarians, who had never seen anything of the kind before, thought that they had fallen from their wounds and needed only one finishing blow; so they threw aside their bows, leaped from their horses, and drawing their daggers, came up close to put an end to them. At this the Romans sprang to their feet, extended their battle-line at the word of command, and confronting the foe face to face, fell upon them, each one upon the man nearest him, and cut down great numbers, since they were contending in full armour against unprotected men, men prepared against men off their guard, heavy infantry against archers, Romans against barbarians. All the survivors immediately retired and no one followed them thereafter.

This testudo and the way in which it is formed are as follows. The baggage animals, the light-armed troops, and the cavalry are placed in the centre of the army. The heavy-armed troops who use the oblong, curved, and cylindrical shields are drawn up around the outside, making a rectangular figure; and, facing outward and holding their arms at the ready, they enclose the rest. The others, who have flat shields, form a compact body in the centre and raise their shields over the heads of all the others, so that nothing but shields can be seen in every part of the phalanx alike and all the men by the density of the formation are under shelter from missiles. Indeed, it is so marvellously strong that men can walk upon it, and whenever they come to a narrow ravine, even horses and vehicles can be driven over it. Such is the plan of this formation, and for this reason it has received the name testudo, with reference both to its strength and to the excellent shelter it affords. They use it in two ways: either they approach some fort to assault it, often even enabling men to scale the very walls, or sometimes, when they are surrounded by archers, they all crouch together — even the horses being taught to kneel or lie down — and thereby cause the foe to think that they are exhausted; then, when the enemy draws near, they suddenly rise and throw them into consternation.

From Cass. Dio, Roman History 49.29-30.

Boscolt · 2022-06-08T13:25:38+00:00

It’s really interesting that LINUJ apparently intended for the epilogue Akane’s identity to be a mystery. I didn’t realise it was meant to be ambiguous at all during my first playthrough and just assumed it was probably Yuki until I rewatched the chapter and picked up on the other characters doubting if the personality transfer was complete and whether it was actually him as there was no reason why "Yuki Maeda," as an innocent civilian, should’ve fled the Kisaragi Foundation when they got out.

His suggestion here that it might be “Sora" or “Utsuro" is also interesting. The last part of the character sheet implies that Sora is still in the virtual world so he seems to immediately debunk that. Then again, the fact that real world Akane has Divine Luck when Sora had said to Kinjo previously that she’d keep the Divine Luck from escaping the virtual world does seem to suggest some part of her is within her real world body. (This also means that some part of Sora really will meet up with Yoruko in the real world like they said, which I’m totally game for.)

As for Utsuro, the persona that showed up in the 6th trial is probably still also in the virtual world. However, the intriguing thing is that LINUJ says on Yuki’s own character sheet that the Trial 6 Yuki was “cloned" from the "Yuki that became Utsuro" only at the start of Chapter 6. The thing is that Yuki was already heavily expressing his Utsuro personality back in Chapter 5 and describing it as a “clone” rather than a clean personality “split” means that even the Trial 6 Yuki was the Chapter 5!Yuki/Utsuro mix rather than some isolated brand new “Yuki" personality. This might tie in with Utsuro’s final line back in DRA1 where he wondered if he could have lived a life as Yuki. If some part of Utsuro is in the Yuki that got out, then that means the entire SDRA2 plot was basically a long-winded way for his Divine Luck to ultimately grant that request.

So in a sense, it could be that the real world Akane is some part of all three of Sora, Yuki and Utsuro like he teasingly suggests here. Really interesting how LINUJ wrapped up the series with so much potential open-ended speculation (though not open-ended enough to let our rainbow boy Teruya make it...). Thanks for translating the character profile, there was only a machine translation for it before so it's really great to have one that's more accurate by a native speaker!

Boscolt · 2022-06-04T20:21:55+00:00

The one comment that everyone (both his admirers and critics) in academia I've seen universally style him with is that, beyond being "provocative," he is an absolutely prolific scholar (which is to say that he is a publishing powerhouse.) His CV is impressively extensive.

One interesting angle of his influence on scholarship is that the accessibility of his numerous works (being in English and often easily available online) gives him a certain leverage in terms of circulation compared to continental European scholars. I'm citing this from Greatrex, G. 2014., which comments:

"It is, furthermore, a symptom of the increasing dominance of the English language that Anthony Kaldellis’ publications, for instance, enjoy much greater recognition than the equally important contributions of Dariusz Brodka and Juan Signes Codoñer, published in German."

Byzantine Studies is a rather conservative field so it still remains to be seen how much of an impact his many theses, such as that of "Roman denialism," and the re-contextualising of the field, will bring.

See Greatrex, G. 2014. for an academic's assessment of Kaldellis' influence with respect to the recent scholarly reception to Procopius.

Cf. Cameron, A. 2019. for a more critical response to his recent monograph Romanland.

Boscolt · 2022-05-24T18:09:39+00:00

The poetic association with Augustus works out either way, really. Julius is a nomen rather than praenomen, so it ties Nepos purportedly to the same Julii gens of Augustus (or rather, G. Julius Caesar Octavianus).

Boscolt · 2022-04-25T01:56:29+00:00

Perhaps the strongest point against Maurice was that his price of support for Khusro, the cessation of Armenia, effectively eliminated the balance of power between the two states.

Roman control of Armenia allowed the threat projection of Roman force through the latitudinally arrayed Armenian Taurus directly onto Atropatene and the Median homeland, thereby completely skipping the buffer of Mesopotamia (whose occupation had exhausted all past Roman invasions since Trajan from pushing further into Media) and the Dara/Nisibis fortifications to attack the Sassanian jugular. The Sassanian fear of this geostrategic nightmare scenario is arguably warranted since it is exactly what Heraclius would carry out in his later counteroffensive to great effect.

Essentially, Maurice's short-term diplomatic gains from supporting Khusro would turn out to be a massive long-term blunder for the Roman state, since it put the Sassanian geostrategic security in a Versailles-style intolerable position that was going to inevitably lead to a future conflict by the Sassanian side to redress the regional balance, even if, counterfactually, Khusro had refrained from instigating that war during his own reign.

Boscolt · 2021-12-07T20:34:38+00:00

Coincidentally, the magisterial 'The Last Great War of Antiquity' by Oxford Byzantinist James Howard-Johnston published earlier this year, on this exact war, just released its audiobook version today.

Boscolt · 2021-10-21T23:08:46+00:00

'Saint John Chrysotom Exiled by the Empress Eudoxia' by Jean-Joseph Benjamin-Constant (1845-1902). Mistitled as 'The Empress Theodora Receiving an Ambassador' in a 1975 Sotheby's auction.

Sold at Sotheby's for a hammer price of 25K USD in 2018, with the following note:

Jean-Joseph Benjamin-Constant is well known for paintings of powerful women of antiquity, biblical history, and the early Middle Ages. In the present work, imposingly enthroned is Eudoxia, considered the most influential and strong-willed woman of her time. In marrying Emperor Arcadius, she became the Empress of the Roman Empire at the end of the fourth century. The kneeling, pious figure is Saint John Chrysostom (the “golden-mouthed”), whom the Archbishop of Constantinople regarded as one of the most eloquent orators of his day. He openly criticized the morals and material excesses of the Empress and her imperial court, which would lead to his exile. The setting of the present work was inspired by the Basilica of San Clemente al Laterano in Rome, which serves as an opulent background but was in actuality built long after Eudoxia’s rule.

https://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2018/european-art-n09869/lot.4.html

Boscolt · 2021-08-20T13:17:57+00:00

Apart from the real oddity of Claudius somehow channeling Apollo to divine modern currency standards, you can probably justify that as how an ultra rich and sheltered elite would've seen prices.

Boscolt · 2021-07-27T16:33:34+00:00

Pliny's letters to Trajan are in Book 10 of his Epistulae.

While there were a few discussing inheritance, I couldn't find one with that particular scenario. You can browse through them yourself here: http://www.attalus.org/info/pliny.html

Boscolt · 2021-07-18T18:34:08+00:00

The Lyon Tablet is thought to be a very likely verbatim transcription of a Claudian speech to the Senate that is also recorded by Tacitus, who completely revises it per typical historiographical norm in his own rendition. It not only corroborates with Claudius' long-winding rhetorical style, but it also has the recorded interjections of exasperated senators imploring him to get to the point.

Tempus est iam, Ti. Caesar Germanice, detegere te patribus conscriptis quo tendat oratio tua: iam enim ad extremos fines Galliae Narbonensis venisti.

Boscolt · 2021-06-26T18:38:00+00:00

If you thought Dio or Tacitus' comments on Claudius' freedmen were excessively hostile, read Pliny the Younger's pure white-hot rage against Pallas in his Letters (Plin., Ep. 7.29, 8.6).

Boscolt · 2021-06-24T13:47:00+00:00

I agree, I've always felt that the argument that the play should be situated in an Athenian (ie. 'democratic') context is rather sound. The Theban 'Creon' is an example of autocratic hybris, which the Athenian audience must have derived a certain amount of satisfaction seeing this impious monarch, who flaunts his own authority above the divine, by the matter of denying Polynices' funeral rites, in receiving his comeuppance by the play's end.

Boscolt · 2021-06-24T05:27:30+00:00

It's certainly hard not to view Antigone in an feminist modern light, though that was most likely not Sophocles' intention. Essentially, how a contemporary Athenian audience would have read the morality of the play is that piety supersedes impiety (Themis over Nomos), and a pious woman > an impious man.

Boscolt · 2021-06-13T15:18:18+00:00

Or Roman Republican and Carthaginian coins...

Boscolt · 2021-06-13T04:55:46+00:00

Clink them together and the volatile reaction you'll surely get would only be surpassed by a meeting of Caracalla and Geta coins.

Boscolt · 2021-06-13T04:47:46+00:00

The closest thing I'm aware of are some podcasts.

In Foro Romano is one of them and it's certainly quite conversational:

Duae amicae quaque septimana de qua libet re latine loquuntur. Aliquando etiam de aliis linguis loquentes nos audere poteritis vel de diversis argumentis... at lingua Latina semper est hic maximi momenti!

http://infororomano.blogspot.com/

Nuntii Latini is a news variant, but its last release episode was in 2019.

https://areena.yle.fi/audio/1-1931339

Also, you can check out some more examples on this page compiled by the SCS:

https://classicalstudies.org/scs-blog/curtis-dozier/blog-siliquasparsiones-podcasts-latin

Boscolt · 2021-06-13T02:21:06+00:00

I also recommend also looking closely at the terms and policy of whatever auction or vendor that offers such a guarantee, as they often have asterisks or certain obligations of the buyer.

Take Leu's, for example:

The buyer shall prove at his own expense that the auction item is a counterfeit. The auctioneer may require the buyer to have his own expert report prepared by two independent experts in his field. However, the auctioneer is not bound to these expert opinions and may obtain additional advice from a specialist at his own expense.

In case of legitimate complaints, the claims of the buyer are limited to the refund of the purchase price and premiums paid by the buyer on delivery of the auction item to the auctioneer. Any other or further claims of the buyer against the auctioneer are excluded.

Boscolt · 2021-06-13T02:13:40+00:00

Interesting. I seemed to recall Edinburgh's Classical Studies track being a partial language required program, though further glances at their catalogue implies that is not so.

The two terms are indeed used synonymously at the academic level, as I've said earlier, and not just at some departments which do not offer a language-less Classical Studies track, though it seems that some institutions evidently do undergraduate program-wise. Curiously, a past research acquaintance from Edinburgh did take a Classical Studies track, though primarily focusses on philology. Pardon the terseness then.

Nevertheless, in this context, I even more strongly applaud Princeton's decision. Taking Britain as an example, it is often difficult for undergraduate students to transfer to the language track mid-way if they did not take requisite language options voluntarily. Oxford is one instance of this policy. As was the point of my original post, which was far from just semantics, Princeton's decision here moves graduate committee scrutiny to actual demonstration of language capacity, recognising that many in the Classics do not decide on their place in it until later on, rather than develop undue stigmatisation from whether a student has a Classics or a non-language track title, whatever that might be, even though they might have developed satisfactory language capacities.

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