Western literature, culture, and American politics find their origins in the ancient cultures of Greece and Rome, according to speakers of the third Center for Constructive Alternatives on Classical Greece and Rome.
“I think we ought to think about the history of Rome, as we ponder what our own future can be and what we can do about it. The Founders looked at the Roman Republic as an endless source of inspiration,” Professor in Humanistic Studies at Cornell University Barry Strauss said.
On Sunday, Assistant Professor of History at Ashland University David T. West spoke on Pericles’ reforms — namely of the justice system, the voting block, and public service.
“Pericles became a key figure in transforming Athens into one of the most radical, direct democracies ever seen,” West said.
West is the son of Hillsdale College’s Professor of Politics Thomas G. West as well as the late Grace Starry West, who taught in the classics department.
Some of Athens’s crowning achievements under the leadership of Pericles, such as the Parthenon, were the result of the growth of the Athenian Empire, according to West.
“If you think of the Parthenon, if you think of Athens, then Pericles got what he wanted,” West said. “He wanted Athens to be remembered eternally for this sort of fame.”
Professor of Political Science at Davidson College Peter Ahrensdorf, in his lecture titled, “Xenophon’s Socrates,” contrasted Xenophon, an Athenian student of Socrates, to Plato.
“Xenophon’s serious point is that the admiration for Socrates and philosophy, an admiration encouraged most powerfully by the dramatic poetry of Plato, can lead to a thoughtless, cultish, and sleepy reverence for Socrates, the most independent minded of human beings and a man who embodies the spirit of wakefulness,” Ahrensdorf said.
Professor Emeritus of Political Science at the University of Notre Dame Walter Nicgorski traced all the schools of philosophy, even of Cicero and the later Stoics, back to Socrates.
“Some scholars think that the late Stoics offered a faded, thinned out version of what was once a vigorous school of philosophy, reaching back to Socrates,” Nicgorski said. “The earlier, pre-Cicero Stoicism had been initially formed into a comprehensive and systematic philosophy.”
According to Nicgorski, Cicero’s writings on philosophy are not just primary sources for Stoicism, but also for all the schools of philosophy which flourished in the Hellenistic period.
The last two lectures of the CCA focused on the Greek and Roman literary contributions to the broader western tradition.
In his lecture, “The Importance of Virgil,” Professor of Literature from Magdalen College of the Liberal Arts Anthony Esolen said we read Virgil because we are human beings.
“As human beings, we read the words of those who come before us, we honor their wisdom and their truth, as much of it as they could see, and we trust that the conversation will continue,” Esolen said.
Former Professor of Classics at Princeton University Joshua Kratz ultimately arrived at the same conclusion as Esolen regarding the purpose of reading Homer and Virgil.
“What makes these tales excellent is their humanity,” Kratz said. “They tell of gods and men, of valor and defeat, of love and jealousy, of pride and piety – all the emotions are in there, all the complexities that make humans, human.”
According to sophomore Sam Wallace, Homer began “the great conversation of Western civilization.”
“There’s so many things to consider when talking about Western civilization, but turning back to the classics of Greco-Roman literature takes us back to the roots of the issue and the most fundamental principles of our western world,” Wallace said. “This conversation is possibly the most important one we can have.”