VOX POPULI 2022

VOX POPULI
ST ALBANS SCHOOL
CLASSICS MAGAZINE
2021/2022

CONTENTS
Editorial .............................................................................................5
A Contemporary Retelling of Ovid’s Metamorphoses ..........................6
It’s not the worst thing about the speech, but......................................8
Acceptance in Iliad. 24 .......................................................................10
Second Form Latin Trip ......................................................................14
Latin Lessons at St Albans School ......................................................15
Ancient Languages: the Empire(s) Strikes Back..................................16
Ancient Architecture ..........................................................................18
Should We Cancel the Romans?..........................................................20
The Origins of Theatre........................................................................21
A Tragic Triumvirate: Tragedy in Ancient Greece ................................24
Aeschylus...........................................................................................25
Sophocles ..........................................................................................26
Euripides............................................................................................27
Agriculture in the Roman World ..........................................................28
Art in Ancient Greece .........................................................................30
Rome before the Romans: The Tale of the Etruscans ..........................34
Nero ...................................................................................................36
Introducing Comparative Philology: Dr Tom McConnell ......................38
National Gallery Trip Review...............................................................40
‘A View from the Bridge’ and the Use of Chorus in Modern Tragedy ...42
Alcibiades, the Boris Johnson of Ancient Athens? .............................46
The Colosseum...................................................................................48
Latin and Modern Languages..............................................................50

Editorial
When deciding on a theme for this edition of vox populi, our initial idea
was Drama. As the year progressed, however, it soon became clear that
the sheer variety of activities and topics explored by the Classics
Department meant that there would be far more to talk about. With the
pandemic restrictions being eased, the Hylocomian Society has seen a
resurgence, with a number of interesting lectures. Likewise, the Lower
Sixth Form have been involved in researching and producing
presentations independently, on any subject of their choice.
With this in mind, it became clear that not only would we be able to cover
Drama, but a wealth of additional content too. Therefore, rather than
honing in on one specific focus, this edition instead highlights the sheer
breadth of the Classical World - the vastness of which, we hope, we have
achieved in conveying. Indeed, there is something here for everyone.
From politics to architecture; theatre to agriculture; literature to linguistics,
there are few stones left unturned. It is therefore with great pleasure that I
invite you to explore the array of topics presented here, and I hope that, of
the many articles contained herein, you find something that interests you.
I would like to thank all those who have played a hand in the creation of
this publication. Firstly, to the students and staff who have contributed
articles throughout the year. Of course, I would also like to thank my fellow
editors in the Lower Sixth Form, whose support has proven valuable
indeed. Chiefly, however, I would like to extend special thanks to Mrs
Ginsburg, the Head of the Classics Department, whose organisation and
drive ensured this publication saw the light of day.
Conrad, Lower Sixth Form
~4~ ~5~

A Contemporary Retelling of Ovid’s
Metamorphoses
Jealous wives, vengeful lovers,
scorned husbands and those
manipulated by more powerful
people- is this an episode of the Real
Housewives of Beverly Hills or
possibly the front page of the Daily
Mail? Neither, these are tales,
immortalised by the Roman poet,
Ovid, in his epic poem the
Metamorphoses; but there is a twist,
each story involves a transformation
from one physical state to another and
in each tale, the protagonists are gods,
and their victims are mortals.
This fantastic production was set in the
intimate Sam Wanamaker Playhouse,
where the 50-strong audience were
entertained by 4 actors, using 100
props and buckets of fantastical
creativity, from a burning chariot of fire
to shape-shifting animals.
Jupiter was portrayed as an arrogant
louche god, dressed in a white suit,
topped off with mirrored shades, in
love with his power and greatness; his
wife, Juno, his regal opposite was a
powerhouse of sharp-tailoring armed
with a bitter tongue with which she
harangued her preternaturally
unfaithful husband. His conquests
were dealt with more viscerally,
whether or not they willingly
succumbed to his physical overtures.
The production shed a contemporary
light on the question of consent and
the coercion of a weaker individual by
someone wielding power.
The modern question of gender and
identity was humorously covered in
the retelling of the story of Tiresias.
Tiresias, born a man, who then lived as
a woman is brought into a dispute by
the constantly warring Jupiter and
Juno, demanding an answer to the
question- who is sex more pleasurable
for- a man or a woman? Juno is
mightily displeased with his answer
that women experience the greater
pleasure, punishing him with
blindness. Jupiter, in a stroke of
humorous sport, thanks him for his
support by giving him the gift of
prophecy, providing the oxymoron of
a bind seer.
The insecurities of the gods was
illustrated by the tale of Arachne,
metamorphosed into an arachnid, by
Minerva, who can’t take a joke that
pokes fun at her lifestyle and her talent
with weaving. It turns out that immortal
power and exemplary talent does not
lead to personal confidence and
happiness.
The gods were displayed more
favourably in the story of Philemon
and Baucis, who, in a modern retelling
of Noah and the Flood, are rewarded
for their goodness, contrasting with
the evil of their fellow man, by dying
simultaneously, so that neither should
suffer the pain of living without the
other. Their transformation into trees
was a sensitive reworking of the theme
of metamorphosis that links each of
Ovid’s tales.
This production was uncomfortable in
its portrayal of sexual abuse, physical
violence, washed down with
bucketfuls of gore, vitriol and
uncomfortable themes- all entirely as
Ovid intended. The shock factor was
how prevalent these themes still are
today.
Mrs V Ginsburg
~6~ ~7~

It’s not the worst thing about the
speech, but..
How did such a brilliant Classicist make the mistake of using this quote, which so
thoroughly undermines the argument of his speech? The only way I can
understand it is that it was wilful blindness – he let his prejudice overwhelm his
intellect. Luckily, we can read the Aeneid for ourselves in all its deep humanity.
Mr M Davies
2018 saw a grim 50th anniversary –
that of the notorious “Rivers of Blood”
speech, seen as the most extreme
expression of racism ever to be made
in this country by a previously
mainstream politician. Enoch Powell, a
former Conservative minister, said in
it: “We must be mad, literally mad, as a
nation to be permitting the annual
inflow of some 50,000 [immigrants]. …
In this country in 15 or 20 years' time
the black man will have the whip hand
over the white man.”
The title of the speech comes from a
sentence in which Powell says: “as I
look ahead, I am filled with
foreboding; like the Roman, I seem to
see ‘the River Tiber foaming with
much blood’”.
Enoch Powell had been a professional
Classics scholar before entering
parliament. He was so brilliant that he
was appointed a Professor of Greek
when he was only 25. His books on
Herodotus are still used.
It is surprising, then, that he made a
reference that seems so ignorant. The
quote that he makes is from Virgil’s
Roman epic the Aeneid (it is in Book 6,
line 87). But it is not a Roman that
speaks these words – it is the Sibyl, a
prophetess of Greek origin. And the
context of the words in the Aeneid as
a whole makes them an odd choice, to
say the least, to quote in a speech that
was anti-immigration, as a warning of
the violence that immigration would
allegedly cause.
description that follows him around,
“dutiful” (pius). The Trojans that he
leads are also refugees, described
when first mentioned as “the remnants
left by the Greeks … driven around
every sea by the Fates”. They, like
many others, have become refugees
because of the destruction of their
home in war. The founder of the
glorious Roman nation and his men
were immigrants to Italy.
The Sibyl foresees “the River Tiber
foaming with much blood” because
Aeneas will fight with the Latins of
Latium (modern Lazio). But, far from
sending the message that immigration
inevitably leads to violence, the poem
shows us that this fighting was
completely unnecessary and
avoidable. King Latinus was happy to
give the Trojans a place to settle in
Latium and to marry his daughter
Lavinia to Prince Aeneas. It is only
because of the interference of the
goddess Juno, who hates the Trojans,
that war breaks out. At the end of the
war, the Trojans settle in Latium and
Aeneas marries Lavinia. This was
always fated to happen, and all the
bloodshed has achieved literally
nothing. And, while the poem ends
with the end of the war, it is full of
reminders that, far from destroying
Italy, the descendants of these
immigrant Trojans will lead it to
unheard-of wealth and glory.
Aeneas, the hero of the book, is a
refugee (profugus) – we are told this
about him in the second line of the
poem, before we are told his name
and long before we meet the other
~8~ ~9~

Acceptance in Iliad. 24
Although Homer’s final book of his
Iliad fixes into a neat ring-like
structure, reflecting the beginning of
the poem, it equally serves as an
independent text within a greater
holistic skeleton. Indeed, Colin
Macleod believed that the book
specifically defined the tragic nuances
of the poem. Although I will not be
able to give appropriate justice to the
book’s deep sincerity, I hope to show
its existential significances, which seek
to explain the human condition and
the necessity of endurance amongst
the inevitable suffering embedded in
life.
Notwithstanding the futile
protestations of his wife, the Trojan
elder Priam sets out to ransom the
mutilated corpse of his favourite son,
Hector, from the best warrior of the
Greeks, Achilles. Immediately, Priam’s
lack of self-worth is apparent: despite
the evident threat from the Greek
warriors, he values the salvation of his
son’s body more than his own and,
therefore, is willing to risk his life. On
his way, he is accosted by an
anonymous young traveller (unknown
to Priam, it is the god, Hermes), who
leads the elderly man through the
camp similarly to a young son guiding
his old father. The primary function of
this event, in my opinion, is to prepare
the audience (as it would have been in
eighth-century oral performances) for
the importance of the father-son
relationship, which is the premiss of
Priam’s demands as he enters Achilles’
hut.
Priam’s supplication of Achilles reveals
his desperation and accentuates his
lack of self-worth: he is willing to yield
completely to his son’s murderer for
the sake of this ransom. By alluding to
Peleus, Achilles’ father, Priam vibrates
the heartstrings of the Greek as both
characters join in their profuse
lamentations for their deceased
relatives. Here, one sees a more
humane side to Achilles’ personality:
he banishes his leonine pugnacity,
acknowledges his impending death,
and commends Priam’s audacity, while
empathising with the old man’s
situation. Both are struck by
admiration and pity as they gaze into
each other’s eyes: in an emphatic
moment, and it is just a moment, Priam
forgets that Achilles killed his son and
Achilles forgets that Priam has
orchestrated a ten-year war against
the Greeks. Instead, they perceive
each other as vulnerable mortals, who
are forever punished by the capricious
machinations of the Gods and, more
specifically, their lot cast upon them at
birth.
Amongst the pity, which embodies
this meeting, Homer grants Achilles a
philosophical voice, as if the poet
incarnates into his literary successors,
Plato and Aristotle. Within the poem’s
very claustrophobic setting, the bard
provides a cosmological reading for
this scene. He describes the myth, like
Pandora’s box, of two jars in Zeus’s
palace, one with ills and the other with
both ills and blessings. Scholars have
been universally divided by this
conundrum, varying from Nietzsche’s
nihilistic opinion that hope is the
greatest evil to West’s more optimistic
viewpoint that the hope is separate
from the evil and, therefore, acts as a
positive force for good. In my opinion,
Homer wishes to prove, through the
mouth of his reformed protagonist,
that suffering is an inevitable course of
life. Even if one’s life is filled with
blessings and utmost joy, the ill of
death, which looms over all helpless
mortals, renders this happiness to an
inevitable end.
Despite their grief, Achilles
encourages Priam to eat, citing the
myth of Niobe, who ate after the
slaughter of her children owing to her
hubris. This has a three-fold
significance: firstly, it adds an
articulate edge to Achilles’ persona,
almost meta-poetically elevating the
son of Peleus to the form of the poet.
This proffers more gravitas to his
speech and, as such, its contents.
Secondly, it confirms Achilles’ return to
humanity as he provides customary
food and drink to a guest, albeit a foe.
Thirdly, and most importantly, it
teaches one the value of
perseverance: the presence of grief
should not distract one from the
necessities of survival and endurance.
On the contrary, one should learn to
live with these emotions, comprehend
one’s inability to contain a world
pervaded with uncontrollable forces,
and accept that suffering, injustice,
and inequality are inescapable
courses of life.
However, ultimately, the most
profound element of this book is its
brevity: the scene is a short hiatus
from the trauma of war, where
partialities are absolved, and the
meaning of life can be perceived
objectively. Indeed, ironically, and
rather poignantly, it is the hope that a
resolution between the sides will be
formed, which encapsulates the
tragedy within the text. After twelve
days of mourning, the fighting will
resume, Priam will be slaughtered in
his palace, Troy will be consumed by
fire and, crucially, Achilles will meet his
premature end. The death of the
Greek hero, the quasi-philosopher of
Iliad. 24, proves the inescapability of
one’s fate; his conscious decision to
choose an early but glorious death,
outlined earlier in the poem, shows
that he accepts this inevitability. He
accepts that a short but heroic life is
better than a long but insignificant
one.
Iliad. 24 offers a pause for reflection
where, amongst the acrimony of war,
sufferer and sufferer can unite in their
grief, caused by divine will and human
pride. I believe that Iliad. 24 teaches
one that complete happiness is
unattainable; in fact, I would argue
that such a disposition indicates one’s
obliviousness to the harsh realities of
existence. Instead, by learning to
accept the fickle tendencies of a
mortal life, to value those cherished
friendships and relationships, and to
endure those inevitable hardships will
facilitate a life of self-contentment.
Achilles and Priam provide an
exemplum of this acceptance: they are
aware of these existential injustices
and, in a didactic way, teach us to live
our lives to the full before we
ourselves succumb to death.
Mr E Baker
~10~ ~11~

Second Form Latin Trip
Latin Lessons at St Albans School
The week beginning the 29th November, the Second Form were very privileged
to be able to visit our local museum, in the park. Being only a five-minute walk
away from school, it was very easy to get there!
Once we arrived, we enjoyed a very in-depth handling session with various real
and replica Roman artefacts, found in the park. We learned the history of what
they were used for and where they had been found. This was extremely
interesting as we were able to get a better understanding of what people used
for everyday jobs in ancient Verulamium.
After this, we had the chance to roam around the museum, looking at other
artefacts and learning the history of the culture and life in ancient Verulamium.
Next, we left the museum and crossed the road into the Gorhambury estate.
There, we walked around a Roman theatre that is still in use today and saw where
shops, houses and markets would have been.
Then, we walked into the park to see a
replica of a Roman Hypocaust. Here we
could also see a large mosaic. This
helped us imagine what would go into
building an ancient Roman house.
Before returning to school, we walked
to the Roman wall ruins at the edge of
the park. We learned that it was once a
grand wall that went all the way
around Verulamium to protect the
citizens.
We all thoroughly enjoyed the trip
and are very grateful for the
opportunity to learn about the
historic grounds our school was
built on and all of the culture that
surrounded it.
Only people who haven’t tried the wonderful language of Latin can ever say this
isn't great to learn, fun to write in and intellectually astounding. I myself have tried
this ancient language and recognized so many different etymologies, or word
origins. The joy of finding out the English word ‘venue’ comes from ‘veno’,
meaning ‘I walk’ is immense – it is incredible to finally know where words come
from. An ambulance might amble up the street, or you might claim the clamorous
people were exclaiming things. You might say learning a dead language is
ridiculous, but that’s Latin for ‘laugh’. Even people who don’t like Latin can’t help
speaking it!
The grammar rules are simple to remember, and people who know French,
Spanish or Italian will find this an excellent way to practice their skills and Latin is
known, thanks to a US study, known to increase your grade in Maths, English,
Science, etc. Over 60% of words in the English dictionary come from an Ancient
Greek or Latin word - usually Latin.
"I hope that even if you remember not a single word of mine, you remember those
of Seneca, another of those old Romans I met when I fled down the Classics
corridor, in retreat from career ladders, in search of ancient wisdom," quoted JK
Rowling after receiving her honorary degree.
As you can see, there is no reason not to love Latin. The teachers are great, and
the language is engrossing - from Latin grossus meaning large in Latin. We get
grocer - someone who sells large amounts of things - and French gros, meaning
large from it. The word is related to grease.
I end with some Latin words:
dico 'vale' ad omnes homines qui in futuro Latinorum amatores erunt. spero te
bene esse.
In other words, bye!
Parth, First Form
Jamie, Second Form
~14~ ~15~

Ancient Languages: the Empire(s)
Strikes Back
The linguistic benefits of learning
Latin and Greek.
As I work towards my end of course
GCSE examinations in Latin, Greek
and French, I have been reflecting on
my enjoyment of the privilege of
being able to learn a number of
languages during my time at the
school so far. I have studied Spanish
and German prior to GCSE and have
dabbled in Punic, the ancient
Carthaginian language. Throughout
my studies, I have noticed the benefits
of learning Latin and Greek, not only
for the pleasure they bring in their
own right in facilitating my access to
the literature and culture of the
ancient world but also in their
influence on my wider modern
language learning and experience.
The most obvious point of connection
is that both Latin and Greek, unlike
English, are inflected languages,
which provides a mental shortcut to
the grammatical structures of other
modern languages with those shared
structures. Having developed an
understanding of the nominative,
vocative, accusative, genitive, dative
and ablative cases first in Latin
provided a sound foundation for
understanding the technicalities of
working with a shorter list of cases in
constructing sentences in German.
Moreover, common elements of
vocabulary or roots of vocabulary
have made it easier to process the
rigours of extensive vocabulary lists in
Latin, Greek and French. An obvious
example is the connection between
the Latin ‘frater’ and the French ‘frère,’
meaning ‘brother.’ It might be argued
that the similarities could become
confusing but actually it’s very useful
as it allows you to work out the
meanings of more complex unknown
French vocabulary from Latin roots.
A further element of studying ancient
languages that I have found helpful is
the prevalence of dialect in the Greek
literature we have studied to date.
Herodotus’ Histories and Homer’s Iliad
are both written in dialects which are
subtly different from the Attic Greek
with which we began, at the start of
the course. This is useful for
developing an understanding of how
languages can sound when spoken
slightly differently and that nuance
enhances our consideration of dialect
in literature across the whole
curriculum.
Studying Classical languages has also
broadened my horizons in terms of
the geographical range of languages
which sit under the umbrella of
Classics. Traditionally thought of as
Latin and Greek, ancient languages
also include Sanskrit, Oscan and
Hittite, to name but a few. An
awareness of a wider linguistic
perspective is important for
understanding that the classical world
does not begin and end in Europe
and helps us to unpick some of our
more problematic cultural
assumptions about ‘western’
civilisation and its interaction with
other cultures. Particularly interesting
for me has been an unexpected
introduction to Punic, the language of
the ancient Carthaginians from North
Africa. Rome’s traditional enemy
leaves little trace of its language, much
to my frustration. When I tried to
research Hannibal’s mother tongue, I
found that, aside from a few Punic
inscriptions, our best evidence for the
language lies in a few lines of the
Roman author Plautus’ play, The Little
Carthaginian. The details of what is
preserved are fascinating but the
paucity of evidence for the language
is a sobering reminder of the extent to
which our cultural heritage is
determined by what the powerful
choose to preserve and pass on.
Finally, I have benefitted from using
my classical languages to understand
better the role of verbal elements in
constructing cultural nuance. By this I
mean that it is sometimes the case that
a Latin or Greek word may have a
meaning which cannot be translated
by a direct equivalent in English. An
example of this is the Greek word
‘aischros;’ it can mean ‘shameful,’
disgraceful,’ or ‘ugly,’ depending on its
context. Furthermore, it is a very
specific word culturally as it has
connotations of feeling shame in front
of one’s peers, which is markedly
different from, for example, a Christian
sense of shame which is often
described as an internal emotion,
strongly related to guilt. These
interesting words lead to an instinctive
grasp of meaning within culture on
encountering them regularly, although
this can also result in some frustration
when rendering them into Englishyou
know what it means but you can’t
find the word!
All in all, the study of ancient and
modern languages together is a
powerful combination, not just in
terms of supporting the achievement
of competence in both but also in
drawing out wider benefits and
complexities both linguistically and
culturally. It helps us to gain greater
insight into our touch-points and
differences with other cultures, which
surely leads us to better
understanding and empathy.
Jonathan, Fifth Form
~16~ ~17~

Ancient Architecture
As part of the Lower Sixth Form ’Symposia', I decided to deliver an amusing talk
on the architectural achievements of the Roman Empire, looking at a range of
structures – everything from roads to bath-houses and even amphitheatres.
Hoping to make it a memorable talk, I decided the best way to begin was with a
nod to the classic Monty Python ‘what have the Romans ever done for us’ scene
from The Life of Brian, by beginning with the first thing the Romans did for us –
the aqueducts. Designed to provide a quick and easy way to move water from
one place to another, it was powered by gravity: pulling water down a gradual
slope from source to city. They were among the most important Roman structures
– and, for me, also among the most impressive. Never mind the temples, the
aqueducts are where it’s at!
I then moved on to one of the Roman constructions most relevant in today’s
world. The roads, like you would expect today, were well-built and wellmaintained.
After all, an empire with no transport links can’t function too well.
Taking advantage of advanced construction methods and featuring drainage
similar to that of today’s, they’re another example of just how ahead of their time
the Romans were.
The baths were next on my agenda, as I discussed the rooms in which a typical
Roman would socialise and relax after work, school or whatever else a citizen may
get up to. I also discussed the marvels of the hypocaust – the underfloor heating
system for the baths (and the wealthy). Fortunately, today’s central heating is
nowhere near as taxing for the person operating it – we use a boiler and
thermostat, instead of a furnace and a slave!
Entertainment was just as important for the Romans as bathing, so naturally I also
discussed the theatres and amphitheatres, while trying to keep my audience
amused. Architecturally similar yet very different, it’s astounding how massive
these structures are, and how so many still stand today. Remember, there were no
power tools or tower cranes back then- all built by hand! A common theme
between them was the use of the arch, an Etruscan invention that the Romans
exploited endlessly for their own benefit.
The fact that so many Roman constructions are left, and are in such good
condition, just emphasises how good they were at building things. There’s even
some of it on our doorstep at the Verulamium ruins. I can only recommend going
to look at some Roman structures for yourself; take them in, and just imagine
what it would have been like to be there when they were first built.
Alex, Lower Sixth Form
~18~ ~19~

Should We Cancel the Romans?
The Origins of Theatre
In a recent Classic Symposium, I
delivered a talk on feminism, or the
lack of, in Roman society. I talked
about the expectations and limited
roles, and concluded that they had a
long way to go. During my talk, I
discussed the protests against the
Oppican Law, a unique and inspiring
demonstration by the women of Rome
that truly shows the power of a shared
belief, as well as the historic epitaph of
Claudia, “she made wool, she kept her
house”. Roman society, while
technologically advanced, had very
strict gender roles and views that
cannot be considered progressive by
any modern standards. Women could
make their own legal and financial
decisions, or even vote. But should be
‘cancel’ the Romans, stop reading their
literature and studying their
language?
Roman society was at a high level of
technological advancements, and by
the late empire had a developed
society. Yet, it still did not have equal
rights and opportunities. By modern
standards, any society that
disenfranchises women is seen as oldfashioned
and undemocratic. Yet the
Romans, at least the Roman Republic,
sought to call itself a representative
democracy, despite not representing
half of its population. If a celebrity
expounded the view that a ‘good’
woman must obey the paterfamilias
(patriarch) of her family, their Twitter
account would likely be deleted within
the hour. So why do we not use the
same philosophy with our forebears?
It is important to note that Roman
women still had some rights, for
example the right to divorce. However,
their societal model is not one we
should be copying in the modern day.
Instead, we should learn from their
mistakes, and strive to make a better
society. The only outcome of
cancelling the Romans would be to
lose hundreds of years of knowledge
and experience, that could inform a
greater future for all. Our current
global society has a long way to go
itself, and the only way to move
forwards is to accept what has
happened before.
In summary, I do not believe we
should cancel the Romans. While they
had some backdated ideas, their
stances on race and marriage and
many other issues were parallel to or
ahead our own. The Romans even
realised the perils of monarchy, while
we live under a Queen. The Roman
Empire is a source of knowledge, but
also a reference point to see just how
developed we are in the 21st Century,
and how far we have to go. The
Romans should not be idolised, but
neither should they be cancelled.
Oliver, Lower Sixth Form
Did you know that drama comes from
the Greek word δράω meaning ‘I do’
and theatre comes from θέατρον
literally meaning ‘a place for viewing’?
Well now you do, I’m guessing you
can deduct that theatre started in
Ancient Greece. More specifically in
Athens sometime in the 6th Century
BC. According to Aristotle, who was
one of most respected Ancient Greek
philosophers, noted that the very first
forms of theatre were seen at festivals
honouring Dionysus. Dionysus is the
Greek god of fruitfulness, wine, and
fertility to name a few, and in short
resembled all that was majestic and
charming about Ancient Greek culture
at the time. At these festivals there was
music and poetry readings and public
speaking and from a combination of
these things, theatre was formed.
These earliest signs of drama came
under three genres: One is comedy.
Comedy actually originated from
music, as well as festivals or mirth and
phallic rituals, and because of this
comedy wasn’t taken very seriously by
most people at the time, looked at as
an imitation of the ridiculous, but
drama practitioners and enthusiasts,
such as Aristotle, tried to teach it in
such a way that it could be respected
and professionalised. Next is tragedy,
which originated from these dancedrama
performances known as
dithyrambs. Masks would almost
always be used in tragedies to show
different emotions more clearly to a
large audience. An example of an
Ancient Greek tragedy would be
Medea by Euripides. The third is a
Satyr play which to my surprise has
nothing to do with satire. These
involved mixing the two previous
genres by using the structure and
characters of a tragedy while adopting
an happy atmosphere and a
background. A satyr is actually a
mythological spirit and in satyr plays
there would be a chorus of satyrs
miming and moving around in a
comedic way.
Theatre spread into Roman culture by
about the 4th century BC, after the
Etruscans came to Rome and gave
performances to the people. The
Romans developed western theatre,
encouraging a higher quality of
literature for the stage as well as street
drama festivals.
Ed, Lower Sixth Form
~20~ ~21~

A Tragic Triumvirate: Tragedy in
Ancient Greece
Aeschylus
To this very day, tragedy is associated
with some of the greatest theatrical
works in literary history. From
Shakespeare to Ibsen, Chekhov to
Marlowe, the genre has been firmly
established as one of the most
influential in theatre. The word tragedy
itself is derived from Ancient Greek,
and likely comes from the words for
“goat-song” (τράγος (goat) + ᾠδή
(song)). However, there are other
suggestions that it comes from other
origins, linked to, among others, beer
and adolescent voice changes. That is
not the only unresolved question
either, as there is no one, decisive
origin for tragedy. However, what is
clear is that it emerged as a result of
various influences of the time. For
example, tragic stories often involved
tropes commonly found in epic and
lyric poetry. Similarly, the meter of
tragedies was often iambic tetrameter,
which arose in part due to the poems
of Solon, a prominent Athenian
statesman. Aristotle stated in the
Poetics that tragedy began as an
improvisation “by those who led off
the dithyramb” – hymns in honour of
Dionysus. Gradually, this began to
develop into tragedy in a form closer
what we would recognise, with the
development of a few key features.
Namely, the combining of spoken
verse with the choral song, the
growing interaction between actors,
and the decrease in importance of the
chorus. This resulted in the earliest
form of drama we, in the modern day,
would perhaps recognise, and was
shaped further still by the figures to
follow.
Following articles all by Conrad,
Lower Sixth Form
Aeschylus was born in Eleusis,
about 18km northwest of Athens, in
around 525/524 BC, into a wealthy
family. He is often described as the
father of tragedy and wrote
approximately seventy to ninety
plays in his life, of which only seven
survive. His first play was
performed in 499 BC. One of the
foremost influences on his life, and
indeed his work, was his military
service. In 490 BC he took part in
the Persian Wars, where he fought
in the Battle of Marathon. After this,
he won his first victory at the
Dionysia festival in the year 484 BC,
symbolic of his growing
prominence as a dramatist. Four
years later he was again called back
into military service, this time to
fight against Xerxes I. He fought in
the Battles of Salamis and Plataea,
of the two Salamis would feature
prominently in his oldest surviving
play, ‘The Persians’. This play was
performed in 472 BC, again at the
Dionysia, where it won first prize
once more. By 473 BC, his chief
rival, Phrynichus, had died, leaving
him with little significant
competition. He would proceed to
win almost every competition he
attended at the Dionysia festival.
One lesser-known fact about him is
that he was actually a member of a
cult of Demeter, the Eleusinian
Mysteries, some of whose secrets
he revealed on stage. This resulted
in, according to some accounts, him
being publicly attacked with stones.
What is certain is that this event
resulted in him going to trial, where
he was eventually acquitted, in
large part due to his military history.
In 458 BC he went to Sicily, where
he would remain until his death in
456/455 BC.
His works established the
foundation of tragedies at the time;
he introduced trilogies, which were
3 plays in sequence - as you might
imagine – which were usually
followed by a satyr play. He also
implemented a second actor, which
allowed conflicts between
characters to be performed on
stage. Content wise, his plays were
often strictly morale and religious in
nature, as was typical of the time.
“It is in the character of very few men to
honour without envy a friend who has
prospered”
“From a small seed a mighty trunk may grow”
“Wisdom comes through suffering”
“His resolve is not to seem, but to be, the best”
~24~ ~25~

Sophocles
Euripides
Sophocles was born in around
497/496 BC in Colonus, Attica, into
a wealthy family. He wrote over 120
plays, although unfortunately only
seven have survived in complete
form. He was the most successful
playwright of his time in terms of
competition success: he competed
in thirty competitions throughout
his life, of which he won twentyfour,
and came second in all the
rest. In comparison, Aeschylus only
won thirteen competitions, and the
person coming up next, Euripides,
only won five, with one of those
five being posthumous. His first
major artistic success came in 468
BC, where he beat Aeschylus at the
Dionysia, to win first prize. In 443
BC he acted as one of the treasurers
of Athena, where he helped
manage money in Athens upon the
ascendancy of Pericles. In 441 BC
he was elected as one of ten
generals of Athens and participated
in the Athenian campaign against
Samos. Most surprisingly for the
time, Sophocles lived to the ripe
age of 90/91, finally dying in the
winter of 406/405 BC.
His innovations in the field of
tragedy were also incredibly
significant: he pioneered scenery
and the use of scenes, the lack of
which seems practically unthinkable
in modern theatre. He also
introduced a third actor, which
allowed for more focus on character
development and conflict; a
development which also served to
reduce the importance of the chorus
in explaining the plot. However, he
did also increase the number of
chorus members to fifteen.
Euripides was born in 480 BC in
Salamis, about 16km west of
Athens. Over the course of his life
he wrote around 92-95 plays, of
which around 18, potentially 19
(the authorship of Rhesus being
suspect) have survived. This is far
more than Aeschylus and
Sophocles, partly because as their
popularity declined, his rose. His
works were therefore produced in
greater quantities. It is perhaps
surprising therefore that he
received far fewer victories than the
others – as mentioned earlier he
received only five, one of which one
was awarded posthumously. His
personal life was unenviable. He
married twice, however both of his
wives were unfaithful and the
marriages ended up as disasters.
This led to him becoming a societal
recluse, living in a narrow cave
approximately 47 metres deep on
Salamis, aptly named the Cave of
Euripides. Throughout his life, the
conflict between Athens and Sparta
took centre-stage, however he died
in 406 BC at the age of 74, not
living to see the ultimate defeat of
Athens in 404 BC.
His contributions to tragedy are
vast, and for the time, revolutionary.
He put a focus on realism, with an
emphasis on characters’
psychological insecurities, rather
than the resolute heroes of prior
works. He also introduced the ‘deus
ex machina’ concept, turned the
prologue into a monologue giving
the story’s background, and
diminished the choir’s importance
in favour of using characters to
progress the plot.
“Fear? What has a man to do with fear?
Chance rules our lives, and the future is
all unknown. Best live as we may, from
day to day.”
“Tomorrow is tomorrow. Future cares
have future cures, and must mind today.”
“You can kill a man, but you can’t kill an
idea”
“To never have been born may be the
greatest boon of all.”
“I would rather die on my feet than live
on my knees.”
“Stronger than lover's love is lover's
hate. Incurable, in each, the wounds they
make.”
“Talk sense to a fool and he calls you
foolish.”
“Of all creatures that can feel and
think, we women are the worst treated
things alive.”
~26~ ~27~

Agriculture in the Roman World
The biggest industry we rely on in the
modern world but one which we
sometimes take for granted in our day
to day lives is agriculture. Farmers
spend every day tending to their
livestock or out in the fields looking
after their crops which we then go on
to eat. These methods haven’t just
jumped out of thin air. We can go back
two thousand years to see the roots of
some of today’s farming practices.
For example, today we use big
machines such as tractors and forage
harvesters. Tractors pull big ploughs,
cultivators and trailers to get the
harvest in. Farmers can be out 18
hours a day in a tractor, sometimes
even more when weather is an issue.
Technology is at the forefront of
today’s big arable and dairy farms,
with GPS and automatic steering in
big tractors and combine harvesters.
Robots are used to milk vast herds of
cows. But the Romans did it very
differently.
The Roman’s farmed both livestock
and crops. They farmed cereal crops
wheat, barley and legumes such as
chickpeas and alfalfa (used as animal
feed). Other crops such as turnips and
radishes were also grown by the
Romans, with olives, grapes and fruit
trees, suited to the Mediterranean
climate, being grown. Livestock such
as cattle and pigs were fattened for
meat, and sheep were kept for wool.
Roman holdings were often as little as
one and a half acres, with most farms
relying on hand tools to prepare fields
for crops. These included pickaxes
and hoes with bronze or iron edges.
However, larger farms with vineyards
of olives or grapes could take up areas
of up to 150 acres, since farmers were
encouraged to produce large
quantities of these expensive crops for
oil and wine, rather than producing
cereal crops in excess. Ox were used
to pull ploughs and carts on these
larger farms, rather than exclusively
using hand tools.
To prepare fields for planting seeds, a
plough would be pulled along by an
ox, with someone following behind
with a pickaxe in order to break up any
lumps of soil in the row left behind.
Someone would then drop seeds into
the row by hand. This process would
be done two or three times a year for
land which would grow wheat or other
cereal crops. After this, dung would be
spread by hand after the second time
the field was ploughed. Water would
then be added for the dung to rot
down quickly.
A system called the crop-and-fallow
system, where a field would only have
a crop grown and harvested in it every
other year, was used. In the year where
the field would lie fallow, the field
would be ploughed in order to control
weeds which commonly grow in
cereal ground. For crops to grow well,
trenches would be dug in wet ground,
to improve the drainage of the soil in
order for it to remain fertile so crops
could have high yields. The Romans
judged the quality of the soil based on
its colour, taste, smell and texture. This
would determine its suitability for
growing certain crops.
Harvest was carried out using a sickle,
a curved metal tool for cutting the
plants. There were different methods
of obtaining the crop from the plant.
Sometimes only the ear of the plant
was cut off for cereal crops, the part
containing the grains. The straw would
then be cut later. Similarly to today,
they also cut the whole plant and then
threshed the grain. In Gaul, they used
a tool called a reaper, pulled through
the crop by an ox, cutting the ears of
the plants as it went. A simple process
was used to thresh the grains from the
plants: animals walked over the
harvested plants, crushing the ears
and removing the grains. Grass and
alfalfa were also harvested for hay to
feed livestock using a sickle by cutting
the whole plant.
While these methods may seem farfetched
in terms of modern farming,
these were crucial for the
developments we have seen today.
The basic premises behind how the
tools are used can be seen on a much
larger scale today. Our sustainable,
environmentally friendly British farms
would be far from where they are now
without the Romans.
Andrew, Lower Sixth Form
~28~ ~29~

Art in Ancient Greece
expression of creativity rather than something functional or mundane.
Ioan, Lower Sixth Form
The Geometric Age took place from
around 700-900 BC, and some early
examples of pottery survive from this
era. Work from this era is defined by
geometric and linear patterns, with
repeating motifs. The designs were
very simplistic, as the Geometric Era is
considered to be the ‘dark age’ of
Ancient Greek history. Therefore, little
outside influence from different
cultures affected the art made in
Ancient Greece, which was commonly
basic and functional. Near the end of
this era, signs of change could be
seen through the first depictions of
people in pottery. In their infancy,
these images were generally simplistic
and abstract, with few facial features
and lines used to represent hair. As
the Greeks began to interact with
more diverse cultures, these
depictions would become more
complex and varied.
The Archaic Age took place between
around 800-480 BC. During this time
the Greek population significantly
increased as the empire expanded,
and this change was reflected in the
more varied art forms present during
the archaic age. Greek trade in Egypt
led to the introduction of kouros
figures, which were life-size human
sculptures commonly used as burial
markers. Some Greek kouros figures
corresponded exactly to idealised
Egyptian rules about the proportion of
human figures, showing how outside
influence from different cultures
helped Ancient Greek art to develop.
Later in the Archaic Age, a cultural
boom in Athens led to the
development of red figure pottery, a
technique which allowed more
complex images to be depicted on
vases. Art now became more focused
on the depiction of the human body, a
trend which would continue
throughout Ancient Greece.
From around 500 bc until around 350
bc, the Classical Age brought about a
shift in the purpose of art. Sculptures
now focused on portraying a highly
realistic image of the ideal human
body. In addition, as the art of
sculpture became more refined,
people were portrayed in more
naturalistic and athletic poses,
whereas the upright stature of the
kouros sculptures went out of fashion.
From around 450 Bc, artists in Ancient
Greece began to depict public figures
such as politicians for the first time,
showing how far art forms had
progressed, as artists were now able
to produce realistic imitations of reallife
people.
The Hellenistic Age saw the rise of
realism in art. From around 320 to 30
bc, the focus of art in Ancient Greece
shifted towards realistic depictions of
what the artist could see, rather than
idealistic interpretations. Because of
this, everyday people started to
appear in sculptures and other
artwork. At this stage, the Greek
empire had reached its peak under
Alexander the Great, meaning that
Greece became an epicentre of
culture. Artists became known in their
own right for the first time and were
able to extend their talents. Largescale
sculptures depicting battle
scenes and mythical stories became
popular, as artists tried to capture
emotions of passion through their
work. In this age, art became closer to
what we think of it today; an
~30~ ~31~

Rome before the Romans: The
Tale of the Etruscans
Every civilisation starts somewhere.
From new to old, every society starts
off small, but with time learns to grow
and adapt to new conditions with new
enemies and new friends. Such was
also the story of one of the influential
societies in history – the Romans. For
them, this meant expanding from their
base in ancient Latium, eventually
conquering the Italian peninsula, and
further the Mediterranean. However,
the Romans were not the first society
in Italy – an older people had
established a wide presence,
stretching from the Po Valley to
Naples, despite being cultural and
linguistic unintelligibles. Such a tale
was the tale of the Etruscans.
The Etruscans are believed to have
first properly established themselves
as a permanent society around 900BC,
remaining until 500BC with the
growing Roman Republic taking
centre stage instead. Naturally, if the
origins of the Romans are explored, so
must the Etruscans’. Turning to Greek
and Roman authors given the lack of
longer texts in Etruscan itself, most
agreed that the ancestors of the
Etruscans migrated from an area
nearby Greece or western Turkey
today. Regardless of the migratory
route, the Etruscans remained in Italy,
where the earliest Etruscan culture –
the Villanovan culture – developed,
beginning in 900BC. Characterised by
advances it made in metalwork on the
peninsula, the use of idiosyncratic
double-cone shaped urns for the
cremated and rectangular housing,
the culture served as the basis of early
Etruscan society.
Not dissimilar from other cultures,
however, Etruscan society utilised a
general societal structure, with the
government as the central authority
with the overarching power.
Accordingly, it often presented itself
as such, with sub-roles such as
magistrates furthering its political
position, although the responsibilities
of the varying types of magistrates are
unclear. In part, such a system
influenced the foundations of Rome as
a state later on. Similarly, a strong
military accompanied the established
government. Continuing long military
tradition, Etruscan warfare involved
summer campaigns, raiding of
neighbouring areas, attempts to gain
territory and fighting piracy. Soldiers
were held in high regard, with enemy
ransoms often paid for by families.
Unsurprisingly, family in ancient
Etruria also tended towards the ideals
of aristocracy and status, like the
counterpart Roman concept of gens.
Concurrently, despite encouraging a
misunderstanding of Etruscan women
by Greeks, nudity in art incentivised
some to move away from feminine
expectations, an uncommon
development for an ancient society.
Another binding factor of
communities is religion, an aspect of
culture the Etruscans were also
invested in. As firm believers in
immanent polytheism, the prevailing
belief held was that everything visible
in the world simply represented a
form of manifested divine power,
where such power was held by deities
who were able to influence events in
the human world. A complex
viewpoint, figures Tages and Vegoia
would act as initiators in guiding one
to understand and work with said
deities, while three other levels of
deities formed the remainder of the
religious hierarchy: earthy concepts
like Catha (the sun), above whom were
figures such as Tinia (the sky), as well
as the third, foreign element of
borrowed gods from Greek and early
Roman mythology such as familiar
Aritimi (Artemis) or Menrva (Minerva),
reiterating the level of contact with
nearby cultures Etruscan society
experienced despite an isolated
beginning.
A final aspect of Etruscan uniqueness
is also identifiable in the language. As
opposed to the Indo-European nature
of the surrounding Italic languages
and Ancient Greek, Etruscan is
classified as a language isolate,
whereby no other known language
resembles it enough as to form any
greater family or relationship. On the
contrary, a Tyrsenian linguistic family
has been proposed in light of alleged
similarities with the other regional
languages of Raetic and Lemnian,
though such a proposal has not
gained widespread support.
Nevertheless, with Italy acting as the
main hub for use of the language, a
distinct Etruscan script was developed
based on the Euboean Greek
alphabet, an important historical event
given the Latin alphabet’s later
descent from the Etruscan.
Notwithstanding, Etruscan retains
complicated syntactic features such as
agglutination, as well as an unusual
adjective system, leading to its
incomplete decipherment, in part due
to the loss of major Etruscan literary
texts. Despite this, the linguistic
influence of Etruscan is still visible
today, with several words in English
ultimately deriving from the language
such as person, belt, or military itself,
in addition to several hundred words
in Latin in a similar way.
In conclusion, Etruscan society did not
reach the height of power and riches
the later Roman Republic saw, but its
historical importance as Rome’s nearqualified
predecessor cannot be
disputed, despite attempts by
pseudo-theological Roman authors in
constructing a glorified Trojan origin
myth. Such an importance is still felt in
the English language today, with the
question not being whether the
Etruscans should be remembered, but
rather how they are to be
remembered.
Elion, Lower Sixth Form
~34~ ~35~

Nero
On the 11th of October, pupils
ranging from the Fourth to Sixth form
had the opportunity to visit a
fascinating exhibition of Nero at The
British Museum, which gave an
informative look into the life of this
controversial Emperor and challenged
our preconceived ideas of him. Was
this the emperor who murdered his
own mother, kicked his wife to death
during pregnancy and thought himself
the greatest artist and performer? Or
was this the emperor who built
numerous buildings for the welfare
and entertainment of the people, gave
refuge within his private gardens to
ordinary Roman citizens during the
great fire and who was so loved by the
people that, even decades after his
unbelieved suicide, numerous false
Nero’s appeared who each gained a
massive popular following? While the
exhibition did not give a definitive
answer, it drew upon the latest
research and depicted Nero as a
populist in the changing times of
Rome.
Since Nero was decreed damnatio
memoriae (meaning that the
government condemned the memory
and all traces of him), many statues
and depictions of him had been
altered or destroyed. However, the
exhibition provided a rare chance to
observe some of the few remaining
statues and replicas of them. One
particularly important statue depicts
Nero as a young boy, 13, showing all
the promise of a responsible and
handsome man. Since Nero came to
the throne at the age of 16, the statue
really emphasises the heavy burden
that this young child must have had,
but also his immense potential.
Following on from Nero's youth, there
were a multitude of statues showing
Agrippina, his mother and wife of the
previous emperor Claudius, made in
many different precious materials such
as bassanite black stone. Agrippina
was said to have murdered Claudius
with a bowl of poisoned mushrooms
to allow Nero to become emperor. It is
widely believed that she held massive
influence and control over Nero,
eventually leading him to resent and
then kill her.
Leading away from the royal statues,
the exhibition contained paintings of
the theatre, a dominant aspect of
Nero's life, as well as silver treasures
from Moregine and decorations from
Nero's own palaces.
Students finished the day by spending
some quality time in Trafalgar Square
and enjoying the paintings in The
National Gallery, some of which were
heavily inspired by classical
architecture and literature. In all, it was
a very enjoyable and informative day
from which we all gained an insight
into those ancient times and that
notorious emperor, Nero.
Seb, Fifth Form
~36~ ~37~

Introducing Comparative Philology:
Dr Tom McConnell
Earlier this year, the Hylocomian Society was proud to welcome back to St Albans
Dr Tom McConnell as a guest speaker, our first in-person speaker after many
months of Teams and Zoom based events.
Dr McConnell is no stranger to the school, having been taught by Mrs Ginsburg,
Mr Rowland and Mr Davies before embarking on his academic career. He began
his journey after leaving the School by completing his degree in Classics at the
University of Exeter before doing his Masters and researching his DPhil at the
University of Oxford. He currently lectures at Oriel College and for the Classics
Faculty.
He gave us an introduction to the fascinating topic of comparative philology,
beginning with an explanation of the complex family tree of Indo-European
languages. Just as we are familiar with the modern Romance languages (French,
Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Romanian and Catalan) being derived from Latin,
many languages, ancient and modern, widely spoken and more obscure, can be
traced back to their common ancestor, Proto Indo-European. The family tree is
represented in geographical terms and ranges from the Celtic languages
including Old Irish, Welsh and Breton, to Tocharian, the most easterly of the
family, originating in China. Dr McConnell described how a study of ancient and
modern languages allows us to understand two key facets; morphology, or how
languages are formed, especially their cases, and phonology which focuses on
the sound of languages. When morphology and phonology correlate with
meaning, it gives us the tools to reconstruct earlier languages.
From this point we focused on how a smaller set of languages might be
compared to understand its antecedents, which demonstrates how languages
interrelate into a family tree. Everyday words in modern English, German and
Dutch can be set side by side to deduce how their commonalities might point to
moments of earlier development. For example, the English ‘water,’ the German
‘Wasser’ and the Dutch ‘water’ are clearly similar and suggest a correspondence
between the English ‘t,’ the German ‘ss’ and the Dutch ‘t.’ Analysis suggests the
Proto-West-Germanic language which preceded these used ‘t’ for that consonant.
This method can be developed further to understand how the ancient languages
of Sanskrit, Greek, Latin and modern English can be used to reconstruct their
ultimate ancestor, Proto-Indo European. An example of this is the word ‘brother,’
which is b’ratar in Sanskrit, ‘frater’ in Greek, ‘frater’ in Latin and may be
reconstructed in a simplified way to be ‘b’rater’ in Proto-Indo European. We know
that these commonalities are not chance alone since, if we apply the same
method to Romance languages, we reconstruct Late Vernacular Latin.
Dr McConnell’s lecture shed light on the fascinating reasons behind some of the
similarities we often notice when learning Latin and Greek but, perhaps even
more interestingly, it raised questions which are as yet unanswered, for example
the placement of the Minoan and Mycenaean scripts, Linear A and Linear B: there
are still many linguistic mysteries to be explored.
Jonathan, Fifth Form
Image Credit: Minna Sundberg
~38~ ~39~

National Gallery Trip Review
Figure 1
After the engaging trip to the British
Museum, where twenty-one Classics
students discovered more about the
life of Emperor Nero, we travelled to
the National Gallery to view some of
the most beautiful and historic
paintings by the Renaissance and
Baroque artists: Titian and Rubens.
With about an hour to look at the
great array of paintings, there were a
few which were especially interesting,
whilst also linking to the Roman era.
For example, The Death of Actaeon by
Titian [Figure 1] is inspired by
Metamorphoses by Ovid. This was one
of Titian’s paintings in which he
produced large-scale mythological
works for Prince Philip of Spain. In this
painting, Actaeon is shown in the
process of his transformation into a
stag; he has a human body but a
stag’s head. Titian makes this type of
painting even more unusual in Italian
art when he shows Actaeon being torn
to death by his own hounds. This is
thought to be one of Titian’s final
works, as he was still working on it in
his mid-eighties.
Aurora abducting Cephalus by
Rubens [Figure 2] is also particularly
fascinating and represents another
book of Ovid’s Metamorphoses:
Aurora and Cephalus, in book 7. Both
the painting and the poem describe
the enthusiasm and desire of Aurora,
the goddess of the dawn, and
Cephalus to go away with each other.
Rubens successfully portrays this
eagerness of Cephalus and Aurora
with their outstretched arms. However,
in Book 7 of Ovid’s Metamorphoses,
Cephalus remains faithful to his wife
Procris, and does not leave with
Aurora. A striking aspect in this
painting is the way in which Rubens
has depicted Aurora as a very human
goddess, thanks to the sturdy legs and
strong, powerful arms. Interestingly,
this painting was influenced by the
other painting discussed above, The
Death of Actaeon. The specific link
between the two paintings is the way
in which both artists painted humanlike
features. Rubens was greatly
influenced by the human form of
Diana, the goddess of the hunt, in
Titian’s The Death of Actaeon, and so
painted Aurora in a similar style.
To conclude, the Hylocomian trip to
the National Gallery in October was an
engaging experience. We had the
great opportunity to learn more about
the Roman era through Titian’s and
Rubens’ remarkable and beautiful
paintings. This extra knowledge and
context have both inspired and
helped all of us with our Classics
studies.
Peter, Fifth Form
Figure 2
~40~
~41~

‘A View from the Bridge’ and the
Use of Chorus in Modern Tragedy
When we think of tragedy, we tend to
think of Aristotle’s definitions of Greek
Classical tragedy, set out in his Poetics.
While many subsequent plays might
be considered tragic in terms of their
plot, when American dramatist Arthur
Miller wrote A View from the Bridge,
he consciously modelled his play on
the Classical Greek models. His tragic
hero, however, is not a significant
figure, but a lowly, ordinary working
man. Eddie Carbone is a docker
unloading ships in New York. In his
‘clean, sparse, homely’ apartment he
enjoys a cosy, loving family life; the
opening of the play’s action gives little
indication of the tragedy to come.
However, the audience is already
aware, because Miller uses a Chorus.
The ancient Greek playwrights used a
Chorus, a group of actors who danced
and sang, interpreting the action,
guiding the audience’s response,
filling in parts of the story and reacting
to events on stage. A View from the
Bridge is not a musical – there is no
group of singers and dancers. Instead,
Miller opens the play with a
monologue by a lawyer, Alfieri, who
provides much the same function as
the Greek Chorus. He gives the
background and context, hints at
violence and introduces Eddie in the
past tense. He also comments that he
was ‘powerless’ as he watched the
story ‘run its bloody course.’ From the
start, then, Miller creates that sense of
inevitability which is a hallmark of
tragedy.
The powerlessness which Alfieri refers
to is an important part of the tradition
of the Greek Chorus. Importantly, the
Chorus was affected by the events of
the play, but could never intervene or
alter their course. Aeschylus daringly
comes close to challenging this in his
play Agamemnon, when the Chorus of
rather ineffectual old men actually
approaches the stage to challenge the
regime of the queen, but
Clytemnestra appears just before their
ascent to send then scurrying back by
the pure force of her scorn.
Alfieri is an updating of that idea. He is
a character within the play as well as a
commentator on it. In Alfieri’s opening
monologue, Miller establishes that the
play is a recreation of his memories;
the events it portrays have already
happened; the story is finished. That
creates a modern interpretation of the
inevitability of tragedy, as Alfieri
cannot of course change the past.
Alfieri’s legal expertise and position
within the New York Italian immigrant
community makes him a confidant for
Eddie, and this allows Miller several
occasions when Alfieri is part of the
story. While he is used to fill in the
gaps and provide explanations, his
discussions with Eddie are crucial to
the play’s development. He comments
on Eddie’s eyes ‘like tunnels’ and on
his ‘passion’ and it is his insistence on
the legitimacy of the relationship
between Eddie’s niece, Catherine, and
the immigrant Rodolfo which goads
Eddie to the revelation of his deepseated
anxieties about Rodolfo’s
sexuality. It is also he who articulates
that Eddie might have ‘too much love
for the niece.’ The sexual
undercurrents of the play might have
been picked up by an alert audience,
but Miller uses Alfieri to make them
explicit.
He also makes his choric role explicit.
Looking back, he admits that he ‘could
see every step coming, step after step’.
There was nothing he could do then,
and certainly nothing he can do now
to alter the tragic direction of the
story. He asks himself why, as ‘an
intelligent man’, he ‘was so powerless
to stop it.’ This speech is towards the
end of the first act of a two act play, so
it also acts as a key foreshadowing
device for the audience. This
anticipation of further developments is
another traditional feature of tragic
dramatic construction. In Act Two,
when Eddie moves to make his fatal
phone-call of betrayal, Alfieri warns
him ‘You won’t have a friend in the
world, Eddie! …Put it out of your
mind!’ But this is a tragedy, and Alfieri
is a Chorus, who cannot intervene
even if he wants to. Eddie makes the
call.
Despite Alfieri's attempts at peacemaking,
he is of course proved right
and the dénouement is bloody. Miller
gives his Chorus the last word and
Alfieri makes a final pitch at
positioning a flawed, violent dock
worker as a tragic hero, a man ‘not
purely good, but himself purely, for he
allowed to be wholly known’.
Mr N Cassidy
~42~ ~43~

Alcibiades, the Boris Johnson of
Ancient Athens?
In around 450 BC in Athens, into an
aristocratic family was born Alcibiades,
an extremely talented and even more
ambitious young man, who had a very
on/off relationships with his home city.
He was brought up by his guardian,
Pericles, who was the leading citizen
of the time and was a pupil of
Socrates, the founding father of
western philosophy. He was one of the
great and the good from a
precociously young age and by 420
he was the leader of the extreme
democrats, who wanted to humiliate
Sparta in their ongoing war (the
Peloponnesian War was fought on and
off between Athens and Sparta from
431-404 BC). As well as being a
brilliant politician he was renowned
for his good looks and sporting
prowess, particularly in chariot racing.
In 415 he persuaded the Athenian
assembly to send a huge expedition
to the island of Sicily, ostensibly to
help allies from oppression but in
reality to increase Athenian power and
wealth and give them the edge in the
war. He was then voted to be one of
the commanders of the expedition,
which then set sail. However, on the
night before the expedition set sail, a
group of young aristocrats got drunk
and desecrated statues of Hermes,
which stood at the gateways to houses
all over the city and Alcibiades was
recalled from Sicily to face charges of
being part of this gang. But he had no
intention of facing justice at home and
escaped, fleeing to Sparta where he
gave advice to send a Spartan general
to the Sicilian city of Syracuse and to
occupy a position at Declea in
Athenian territory. This advice was
probably one of the most significant
factors in Sparta eventually winning
the Peloponnesian war. By 412, having
allegedly seduced the Spartan queen,
he was forced to flee Sparta eastwards
to the territory of a Persian governor
called Tissaphernes. Having failed to
persuade him to abandon the Spartan
cause, he slipped off and joined the
Athenian fleet in Samos, who
appointed him their general and after
some brilliant naval victories he was
able to return to Athens, where he was
entrusted with an extraordinary
command. But due to a significant
defeat and his enemies rousing
popular suspicion against him, he
once more had to leave Athens for
Phrygia where he sought sanctuary
with the local ruler Pharnabazus, which
was not enough to save him from
being murdered in 404 by the agents
of the Spartan king Lysander.
Alcibiades was an egotist whose
career proved disastrous for his home
city but the ancient historian
Thucydides, who was alive at the time,
suggests in his history that if the
people had trusted him rather than
behaved vindictively towards him he
could have won the Peloponnesian
war and saved his city.
Perhaps the most enlightening insight
into how Alcibiades was viewed by his
contemporary society is the following
extract from Aristophanes’ comedy,
The Frogs, produced in 405BC, where
Dionysus has gone down to the
underworld to rescue a poet to save
Athens and he has to choose between
Euripides and Aeschylus.
Dionysus: Right. So what do you say
about Alcibiades? He’s been an
absolute pain back up there: A brilliant
man, enthusiastic, great general,
helped us enormously but then he
goes and defects to the other side, to
the Spartans! Tell me both of you, what
thoughts do you have about him?
Euripides: What does Athens think of
him?
Dionysus: Athens? Highly ambivalent:
Loves him AND hates him; wants AND
wants him not. What do YOU think of
him?
Euripides: I hate a citizen who is slow
to help his city, quick to cause her
harm, who’s got his eyes wide open to
anything that helps himself but
completely shut when it comes to
helping the city.
Dionysus: By Poseidon! That was well
put! Now you, Aeschylus. What do you
say?
Aeschylus: It’s a better idea not to rear
a lion in a city but if you do, you better
obey his every whim.
I will leave it up to you, noble reader,
to judge whether our current prime
minister Boris Johnson shares any
qualities or faults with Alcibiades, a
brilliant but perhaps fatally flawed
leader and politician in Athens of the
Fifth century BC.
Mr D Rowland
~46~ ~47~

The Colosseum
In November on the second night of
the L6 Classics symposium I presented
my symposium on the Colosseum,
formerly known as the Flavian
Amphitheatre, the biggest
amphitheatre constructed that we
know of.
I summarised very briefly the events
which happened in the Colosseum,
and focused on how it was built.
What happened there? Gladiatorial
combat, military simulations, animal
hunts, executions, public events,
dramas, two sea battles, the list goes
on. And considering the facts that all
of these events were extremely
popular, and the amphitheatre could
seat up to 80,000 spectators we can
only assume how frequently it was
used. Additionally, it was located just
east of the main forum in Rome, so
extremely accessible and in view from
almost anywhere in view, towering the
one-two storey buildings surrounding
it.
Now, the focus was on how it was
built; simply over 100,000 slaves and a
lot of fun engineering. In a more
complex view, the 100,000 slaves
mined over 100,000 cubic metres of
travertine limestone and tuff and
transported them from the quarries to
the building site, then using a variation
of complex building riggs placed the
block of stone and secured them
together with yet another 100,000ish
cubic metres of bricks, concrete and
over 300 tons of iron clamps. Overall,
this makes an extremely well built and
structurally sound donut (dimensions
155.60m by 187.75m reaching
50.75m tall) of gladiatorial
entertainment, oh wait its now in ruin
after 3-4 earthquakes and serious theft
of materials through the Middle Ages,
a) for building houses an b) making
iron tools/armour/weapons.
Now this is all well and good but how
did they lift the blocks of stone, you
may be asking. Well the Romans were
really quite clever, and good at
stealing other people’s creations and
ideas, so had invented various
methods of lifting blocks with cranes:
one such method was using a holivela,
a series of iron inserts used in a
trapezoid cut out in the top of the
block in conjunction with a pulley
system to lift the blocks; or another
using lifting tongs, like the modern
grabber bit on cranes to, you guessed
it, lift the blocks. But wait there’s more,
they could also use a crane or lifting
tower. A lifting tower is much like an
elevator/lift, a tall tower with a shaft
down the middle with a platform
connected to a multitude of pulleys to
be used by slaves to lift the platform
with stuff on up and down. A crane is a
crane, but more, Roman-like, made of
wood and pulleys, with slaves instead
of hydraulics and motors… And of
course, the last genius invention to get
up 50 metres into the air, ladders and
scaffolding.
Some more specifics of the
Colosseum: the different orders of
column used, depending on which tier
of the arcades they are on. The
ground floor; the Tuscan style, a
variation of the Greek Doric style. The
second floor; the more elaborate
Ionian Roman style of pillar seen
almost everywhere. And finally, the
third floor; the Corinthian style. A
plethora of bronze statues depicting
gods to famous people to emperors
etc.. and so many inscriptions.
Finally the interior: the arena is another
donut of 83m x 48m surrounded by a
3-4m high red and black wall; hidden in
the sand floor lie 36 trapdoors, some
with hegmata, lifts, below, them, leading
down into the depths of the hypogeum,
a huge expanse of underground tunnels
and rooms connecting everything to
everything, including private tunnels for
the emperor. And of course, the cavea
(the seats), scalaria (stairs) and vomitoria
(a space outside for people vomit).
Oliver, Lower Sixth Form
~48~ ~49~

Latin and Modern Languages
I study French and Spanish alongside
Latin for GCSE and I have found that
Latin has been helpful in creating links
between these three languages. The
languages I study are quite similar in
many aspects. The similar sounds and
beginnings of a word between the
languages makes it easier to learn the
meaning. For instance, the word
‘church’ in Spanish is ‘iglesia’, which is
close to the French translation, ‘église’,
and finally the Latin translation,
‘ecclesia’. As you can see, the middle
of each word sound reasonably alike.
This is one of many examples and this
makes it a lot easier to translate a
word I have not seen before, if I can
correctly identify the similarity it has
with one of my other languages. This
tells us that Latin has logic, and if we
follow this logic in any Latinate
language, it makes it easier to learn.
allows me to be able to advance my
writing skills as I can practice these
complex points in more detail. Latin
has allowed me to realise that there
are a lot more tenses than just the
past, present and future. Both French
and Spanish have many of these
unheard tenses, such as the pluperfect
tense or even the imperfect tense.
Specifically, with the GCSE curriculum,
we learn these tenses quite early on
compared to modern languages.
Therefore, it is quicker to learn how to
form the tenses as I need to spend
less time on understanding the slight
differentiation in the meaning of the
tenses.
Ibrahim, Fifth Form
Another advantage I have found is
that Latin has helped me to learn my
other languages faster. In Latin, there
are different grammar rules which
apply to both French and Spanish. As I
understand how these work in Latin, I
find it easier to understand when it
comes to another language. This
~50~ ~51~