Dickinson Classics

08/26/2026

08/26/2026

It’s move in day for first-years, and Aristophanes is featured on the new books shelf in Waidner-Spahr Library!

08/26/2026

Borrowed from the good folks at Kenyon Classics, who explain “We believe Elementary Greek is so transformative that we never cap enrollment in the course. To our regret, the Registrar’s software limits us to 999 students.”

08/19/2026

This year’s Roberts Lecturer will be the wonderful James Romm, October 23-24. Stay tuned for details!

Plato is one of history’s most influential thinkers, the “sublime philosopher” whose writings remain foundational to Western culture. He is known for the brilliant dialogues in which he depicted his teacher, Socrates, discussing ethical truths with prominent citizens of Athens. Yet the image we have of Plato—an ethereal figure far removed from society and politics, who conjured abstract ideas in peaceful groves—is a fiction, created by Plato’s admirers and built up over centuries. In fact, Plato was very much a man of the world.

In PLATO AND THE TYRANT, acclaimed historian and classicist James Romm draws on personal letters of Plato—documents that have long been kept in obscurity—to show how a philosopher helped topple the leading Greek power of the era: the opulent city of Syracuse. There, Plato encountered two authoritarian rulers, a father and son both named Dionysius, and tried to steer them toward philosophy. At the same time, he worked on his masterpiece, Republic, in which he conceived a ruler who unites perfect wisdom with absolute power. That dream has echoed down through the ages and given rise to a famous term, one that Plato himself didn’t actually use: philosopher-king.

Combining thrilling political drama with explorations of Plato’s most cherished ideas, Romm takes us into the heart of Greece’s late classical age, a time when many believed that democracy had failed. Plato’s search for solutions led him to write his fervent plea for a new political order, and also led him to a place where he believed his theories might be put into practice. But PLATO AND THE TYRANT demonstrates how Plato’s experiment with enlightened autocracy spiraled into catastrophe, and also gives us nothing less than a new account of the origins of Western political thought.

Available now in paperback.
https://wwnorton.com/books/plato-and-the-tyrant

Jacket Design by Sarah Bibel

08/10/2026

Our fall Latin enrollments are at 40 (14 in the first year, 17 in the second year, and 9 in the third year). Ancient Greek is at 11 (6 in the first year and 5 in the second year). Can’t wait to get started!

08/09/2026

“A means of communicating ancient wisdom and timeless moral truths …. It’s the language, the lessons, the lines … each generation bringing their own interpretation and understanding.”

07/17/2026

Dickinson Classics alumnus Seth Levin went to an advanced screening of the Odyssey movie and came away with a cool souvenir.

07/11/2026

Conventiculum Dickinsoniense 2026!

07/11/2026

Conventiculum Dickinsoniense 2026 is in the books!