The Classics Society Mk II

Propaganda is interesting to study, yeah, but I don't want to read it myself... As an actual "book", Aeneid to me was too meh. I could study the propaganda etc without reading it, quite happily, just from history books or literary criticism etc, but with the Iliad I'd feel I was really missing out if I didn't go straight to the text.

If you get a chance, probably post-interview, have a look at Memorial by Alice Oswald. She basically just takes out of the Iliad all the names of the people who die, some of the passages around that (telling about their lives or about how they were violently torn apart) and some similies. It's a good way in to thinking about what the Iliad does (although I can't quite articulate what it's made me think yet...)

Yeah, I think it has the potential to be really great, or depending on the tutor really, really difficult

T'was both I thought that's why people apply to Oxford.

It is

doesn't take the fear away though

Uhm. so 10am is early morning?

Duh! I did have a 9am once, but that was a different course.

Wait, how the **** do you know the first year timetable for Manchester?!?

Thanks for the recommendation I'll check it out when I have time/money. Currently looking at buying some PIE books though

EDIT: just added it to my amazon wishlist

PIE is interesting, we don't teach it very well to the undergrads here at Oxford though. Just a basic over view of Greek and Latin from a developmental standpoint and then we compare them to each other. Though I think there are lectures on various isoglosses and languages next term.

If you're interested in PIE you need to a) Get the Fortsan book but ignore the cultural aspects he lists and b) learn Sanskrit.

How well can you read old Irish, incidentally?

I'd like to learn Sanskrit at some point

Not very well, to be honest. I managed to get through the middle Irish Táin Bó Cúailnge with heavy use of a glossary - the vocabulary used is so different from what I'm familiar with from modern Irish. I have been looking at investing in some Old Irish textbooks, but as with everything it's finding the time and the money to actually do these things

Oh totally yes time is a problem which is why I never got on very far with my Irish studies. To be fair though out of the "Celtic" grouping I'm much more interested in Middle Welsh since and even then the Germanic and Celtic groups are of little to no interest to me since they're not overly useful from a PIE viewpoint due to a manner of reasons. Much better off with Hittite tbh.

The oriental department here offers two or three different Sanskrit courses, in general though the major one they offer is nicknamed "suicide" by the Classicists here who venture to take it, apparently. Much better off self teaching I think.

Obviously it's much more important to master Latin and Greek down well. Especially since most of the PIE stuff written is utter tosh..

Anyway good luck on your interviews, all of you. And if I was to give one piece of advice it would be read things you're interested in reading; it doesn't have to be the Aeneid or the Iliad, though these texts are important providing you've read a decent amount it doesn't matter too much. Sometimes a smattering of Horace or Archilokhos adds a nice variety.

Good luck.

Well obviously being an Irish speaker myself the study of Irish philology means more to me than just its utility for PIE But I get where you're coming from, self teaching you can work at your own pace and set your own goals

thanks for the advice

Uhm. so 10am is early morning?

Hi all. I've applied for Ancient History for 2012.. Wondering if anyone goes to Liverpool/Manchester as these are my top two choices and I'm not sure which one I like more? Has anyone got an opinion on which one would be better? My key interest is the late Roman Republic. X

Hi

I have an interview early next week for Classics IIb at Oxford. Anybody got any thoughts on how the interviews are structured and what sort of questions might be asked. I am new to TSR, so maybe this has already been answered (where?). Any facts, ideas, advice etc would be VERY welcome. I finished school in the summer and they don't know much about Oxford anyway, so I'm a bit in the dark.

thank you, thank you, thank you

Hello! How's your application going?

Hi

I have an interview early next week for Classics IIb at Oxford. Anybody got any thoughts on how the interviews are structured and what sort of questions might be asked. I am new to TSR, so maybe this has already been answered (where?). Any facts, ideas, advice etc would be VERY welcome. I finished school in the summer and they don't know much about Oxford anyway, so I'm a bit in the dark.

thank you, thank you, thank you

The Manchester department is really good, and Tim Parkin is widely liked there, though there tends to be more emphasis on the Empire as opposed to the Republic, which is my personal opinion of course and I could be wrong, perhaps a look at this link may help http://courses.humanities.manchester.ac.uk/undergraduate/modulelist.html?department=33

I'm not too sure about Liverpool's department but what I will say is that they are far superior on Roman Archaeology than Manchester, and the last Roman Archaeologist at Manchester is retiring at the end of this Academic year, although he only teaches about Roman Archaeology in Britannia. The Liverpool department also run a few excavations that deal with Roman Archaeology whilst Manchester do not. Dave woolliscroft at Liverpool runs the Roman Gask Project in Scotland, which looks at several Roman forts up there. I'm not sure if students of Ancient History at liverpool go onto excavations but I thought i'd mention this as I feel that study of the archaeology of the period concerned, as opposed to relying on literature can only be a plus, and the fact they hold such excavations may tickle your fancy (I myself have spoken to Dave about this as I really want to go onto that particular excavation)

The only thing I hate about Classics at Manchester is the fact that the little dinky room they have in the department is pretty puny in comparison to the other departmental libraries, for example the departmental library for Archaeology is awesome. The main library, John Rylands, is brilliant and is bigger than Liverpool's and holds more resources and materials, that said, the computers are ALWAYS taken by midday which is rather annoying.

I hope I've helped.

It's going okay thanks, offers from Liverpool, Newc and Leeds but no word from Durham - really hoping for an offer from there! Where have you applied?

Haven't heard from Durham either, they're taking their time! Got offers from Glasgow, Nottingham and (Class Civ) Warwick, then a Cambridge interview next week