King's hosts lecture by eminent Classics scholar

The Classics Department was thrilled to welcome Michael Crawford, Emeritus Professor at UCL, to give a talk entitled 'Italy and Rome: giving a Voice to the Voiceless' on Wednesday, February 24th.  Pupils and teachers from several other local schools joined the Classics Society for a fascinating exploration of some of the languages of ancient Italy.

After setting the scene with slides of remote mountain villages in the Appennine region (where the snow falls thickly even in April), he considered the relationship between ancient languages and looked at what we can learn from inscriptions about ancient societies.
He reflected on why it was the Romans who had built an empire rather than any other of the Italic peoples, then set his audience to work deciphering inscriptions in Oscan, a curious language that had to be read from right to left.
After a look at the slightly strange Latin of the Twelve Tables of law, the evening concluded with a question and answer session.
We were fortunate to have the chance to see the ancient world from a very different slant – through its languages – and to be reminded of the incredible diversity of dialect and tongue found in ancient Italy. It was refreshing to be introduced to new territory and have some old misconceptions challenged.