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Classics students to Warwick University

Emperors, Coins, Frogs and Oracles

On Monday 2nd July, the Year 12 Classical Civilisation and Latin students travelled to Warwick University for a fantastic day filled with lectures from some Classics lecturers including Dr Emmanuela Bakola, Prof Alison Cooley, Dr Clare Rowen and of course, by far our favourite, Professor Michael Scott. We were initially greeted by some lovely volunteers at Warwick University, and then met Michael Scott himself, who directed us to the lecture hall for a lovely welcome event. We spent the day attending various different lectures, the first being a lecture about a play, ‘Aristophanes' Frogs’ which is a text that the Year 12 Classical Civilisation group will study in detail next year ahead of our A-level exams. We learnt about the differences in tragedy and comedy in antiquity, and the lecturer was really engaging! We then had a lecture about Roman emperors and inscriptions, particularly Augustus and the Res Gestae, a list of his achievements which were inscribed on a Mausoleum. We then looked at some coins from antiquity in our third lecture, taking a further look at the Latin inscriptions on coins, and also looking at the development of coins throughout the years. We then had the fantastic opportunity to try out a Virtual Reality tour of Ancient Athens which was quite remarkable! And then, after a lovely buffet (and yes we may have also went and had a cheeky costa on campus), we regrouped to have a final lecture with the *newly Professor*, Michael Scott. He talked about Delphi, particularly fascinating as many of the group are soon to be off to Greece for 5 days to visit the likes of Delphi and Corinth on a school trip! And finally, 3 very lucky students (myself included) somehow managed to win from a prize draw a signed copy of Michael Scott's new book each "Ancient Worlds - An Epic History of East and West"!

All in all, on behalf of the Year 12 Classics students, we'd like to say thank you to Mr Paterson for organising the trip and to Jonny for his superb mini bus driving. It was really wonderful to meet someone (Professor Michael Scott) who, as a department, we all look up to as not only a hero of the Classical world, but I think it's fair to say (from the number of pictures of him dotted around the department) also a hero of the RHS Classics Department!

Don't forget to check the @RHS_Classics twitter for more pictures from the event!

Katie Baldwin