Classical Civilization Research Articles

Ten minute trips: a case study examining student perceptions of the value of virtual reality in A-level Classical Civilisation

Abstract Virtual Reality is regularly heralded as a tool which will revolutionise teaching and education, yet little research has been done into its use and, in particular, into its use with secondary school students. Through a case study of a Year 13 Classical Civilisation class this article investigates student perceptions of the use of Virtual Reality in the Classics classroom and its impact upon their learning. This study demonstrated students' positive attitudes towards the use of Virtual Reality and that it appeared to have a positive and lasting impact upon their understanding of Ancient Greek sanctuaries. The study is limited in its scale – both in terms of student numbers and time period – but it can, I hope, offer encouragement for greater use of, and research into, Virtual Reality within the secondary Classics classroom.

Using the CSCP Classic Tales resources to improve literacy in Year 9

Abstract Over the past decade, the literacy rate of the pupils I teach has been declining. This has led to some problems with GCSE Classical Civilisation, where pupils are not strong enough readers to fully access the prescribed sources. To counter this, one of my former colleagues suggested that we use the Classic Tales resources as the basis for our Year 9 course (students aged 13). The aim is to teach the pupils as much mythology as possible, which is an excellent foundation for the myth and religion unit, and to get them to read as much as we can, using the interactive reader, pdf transcripts, and recordings of the stories to engage all pupils in the class. The aim of this paper is to discuss the successes and failures of this strategy.

Lawrence Alma-Tadema and the nineteenth-century 'periode eye': Classical sources for his Entrance of the theatre (1866) and An exedra (1869)

The Anglo-Dutch artist Lawrence Alma-Tadema (1836-1912) is known for being one of the leading representatives of historical genre painting. His paintings are often set in antiquity that usually transmits a peaceful atmosphere, although they also regularly refer to classical sources that include critical messages. Two key works of Alma-Tadema’s Pompeian period are Entrance of the theatre (1866) and An exedra (1869). These works are paradigmatic of the artist’s in-depth knowledge of classical civilization. He seemed obsessed with the historical accuracy of his paintings, which can be partly explained by the fact that general education at the time was steeped in the classics, and the public’s appreciation of his paintings must have been directly related to what was taught at school. Through a detailed analysis in conjunction with contemporary critical reviews, the author intends to reconstruct the nineteenth-century perspective on Alma-Tadema’s work. The question is how his contemporaries may have viewed his paintings, and how the concept of the ‘period eye’, developed by Baxandall, can be of use. It turns out that, with access to these classical sources, Entrance of the theatre becomes a scathing critique of the vanity and conceit of the wealthy class. Alma-Tadema’s reference to Terence’s comedy Andria convincingly complements a social criticism depicted through a public scene at the entrance of the Small Theatre in Pompeii. Additionally, the inscriptions and monuments that were associated with the famous family of the Holconians in particular, and theatrical patronage in Pompeii in general, must have been of particular interest to Alma-Tadema. This also emerged in An exedra, a scene around a tomb at the Via dei Sepolcri in Pompeii. The result is an image that, beyond a casual daily image from antiquity, also aims to show social injustice through the lost gaze of the enslaved person. These paintings show how Lawrence Alma-Tadema was capable of making numerous references, by layering several meanings and suggestions taken from antiquity. They also constitute a clear example of how he used and combined all his knowledge of classical architecture and fashion available at the time, to elaborate a pictorial narrative that pointed to the core of historical reconstruction.

Using Assassin's Creed: Odyssey to teach Olympia as part of the Classical Civilisation A Level

Abstract This study looks at the effective use of Assassin's Creed: Odyssey to teach Greek Religion at A Level. A focus of this study is to identify good teaching practice in using this tool to improve source recall as well as pupils’ ability to use these sources to support evaluation. A recent blog post on Quinquennium highlighted the potential for this game to be used as a teaching tool (Hinde, 2019), while its educational potential has also been promoted by the developers releasing a Discovery Tour version as a ‘game mode for educational purposes’ which acts as a ‘living museum’ (Ubisoft, 2021). While the development of educational tools for this franchise is fairly recent, the use of video games in education is established, with games like Oregon Trail being used as early as the 1980s (Buday et al., 2012, 259). Moreover, the fundamental ideas behind the use of video games, such as the player engaging in some form of virtual dialogue with the creator, is one which can be traced back to Vygotsky's ideas of learning as a socio-cultural phenomenon (1978). For example, by reacting to stimuli in the game, the player is engaging in a dialogue with the historian or game developer who created the initial stimulus, after which the game responds in turn, thereby engaging with the player's actions. Furthermore, the idea of reward or punishment for certain actions within an educational game is also drawing on behaviourist theories of education, whereby a pupil is conditioned via in-game tokens for recall of knowledge. Indeed, this is one of the ways in which game developers encourage game addiction (Vu, 2017, 1).

A fuzzy interval optimization approach for p-hub median problem under uncertain information.

Stochastic and robust optimization approaches often result in sub-optimal solutions for the uncertain p-hub median problem when continuous design parameters are discretized to form different environmental scenarios. To solve this problem, this paper proposes a triangular fuzzy number model for the Non-Strict Uncapacitated Multi-Allocation p-hub Median Problem. To enhance the quality and the speed of optimization, a novel optimization approach, combining the triangular fuzzy number evaluation index with the Genetic-Tabu Search algorithm, is proposed. During the iterations of the Genetic-Tabu Search algorithm for finding the optimal solution, the fitness of fuzzy hub schemes is calculated by considering the relative positional relationships of triangular fuzzy number membership functions. This approach directly addresses the triangular fuzzy number model and ensures the integrity of information in the p-hub problem as much as possible. It is verified by the classic Civil Aeronautics Board and several self-constructed data sets. The results indicate that, compared to the traditional Genetic Algorithm and Tabu Search algorithm, the Genetic-Tabu Search algorithm reduces average computation time by 49.05% and 40.93%, respectively. Compared to traditional random, robust, and real-number-based optimization approaches, the proposed optimization approach reduces the total cost in uncertain environments by 1.47%, 2.80%, and 8.85%, respectively.

Classical Studies Trends: teaching Classics in secondary schools in the UK

Abstract The Classical Association, working with the charity Classics for All, is conscious of the vulnerability of Classics in the secondary education system and wants to understand the reasons behind this. Concern about the decline of classical subjects at GCSE and A Level has been mounting, indicated largely by exam entry data suggesting that entries for classical subjects are low and in the case of the ancient languages in decline.1 The Council of University Classics Departments Bulletin annually publishes statistics for student entries for national examinations at GCSE and A level in classical subjects. But this does not capture the full picture, nor does it represent the other constituent parts of the UK, which have their own examination systems. Therefore, in late 2021 the Classical Association and Classics for All designed a new Classical Studies Survey (the ‘Survey’), to fill in more detailed information about what is going on in schools' classics departments more widely through the UK, across Key Stages 3–5, and to provide practising teachers with an opportunity to make recommendations for future developments in courses for classical subjects. The Survey asked teachers to comment on the current situation for Latin, Ancient Greek, Classical Civilisation and Ancient History, the factors affecting these trends, and what support they considered they would need for Classics to survive in their institutions. This Survey collated data rigorously and enables the Classical Association on behalf of the classics teaching community to make compelling arguments in relation to education policies and examination reform.

Time for Rethinking?

The study focuses on the examination of the most fundamental concept of civil law, especially the right in rem, namely the concept of things. The author seeks to answer the question of how new phenomena appearing because of technological development, such as digital assets, including various crypto assets like tokens, can be integrated into the system of classical civil law, whether they may be subject to property rights or the civil law rules applicable to the property. To answer this question, the author first explores the concept of things based on the old Hungarian private law literature and the provisions of the earlier and current Hungarian civil codes, presenting contemporary private legal opinions. Then, she deals with the legislative extension of the rules governing things and reviews which assets have been subject to a possible revision of the conceptual framework of the thing. The author pays particular attention to the examination of digital assets, defining and classifying tokens based on the MiCA regulation recently adopted by the European legislator. In the final part of the study, the author deals with the category of non-fungible tokens, highlighting the problems that are currently identifiable and clearly need to be solved in the future.

On Augustinian Studies in China: A Chinese and Western Discourse on a Family-State Relationship

There is a growing interest in Augustine’s social and political philosophy as a result of the popularity of Augustinian studies in modern-day China. The Augustinian idea that the fall of Western classical civilization occurred when the natural order of “family-state” was replaced by a “denaturalized, de-politicized fellowship” is one discernible trend. This trend involves using the ancient natural order of “the unity of family and state” as a “righteous” standard to explain Augustinian thought. This interpretation calls into question our understanding of “the natural order” in the contemporary world as well as how people interact with one another in society. This paper compares and contrasts the fundamental debate between “family” and “society” in both Chinese and Western contexts. It begins by outlining three different natural orders in relation to “family-state unity” in pre-modern China and the West. It then uses Augustine’s context, especially The City of God, to illustrate the notion of the natural order. The essay contends that Augustine reformulates the Roman “natural order” using a “family-state unity” model derived from Caritas. This essay also makes the case that Augustine is used in the Chinese context in a way that shows how deeply concerned Chinese intellectuals are with family issues.

Нуждается ли российское гражданское право в расколдовывании (демистификации)?

The article discusses the methodological problems of postclassical civilism. In this regard, it is analysed what is the demistification of the abstract norms of the common part of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation. Based on a critical analysis of the achievements of classical civil law, and above all pandect theory with its “abstract monsters”, the possibilities of using new methods of cognition and law application, such as the method of nominalisation of “modified forms” — abstract concepts, are described. The well-known decisions of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation are used as empirical material.

“Educare all'Antico”. Teaching Classical Civilisation in Italian primary and lower secondary schools

AbstractThe purpose of this article is to offer an overview of an educational project that brought Classical Civilisation to pupils in the Pisa area between 2004 and 2009, through a cooperation between the Department of Classical Philology at our University and the Provincial Administration of Pisa.1 The project was aimed at pupils of primary and lower secondary schools, in response to a thorough reform of the Italian school system that excluded some pupils from studying Greek and Roman civilisations in as much depth as other parts of history. This article will first provide an overview of the Italian education system and its recent reforms, after which the project Educare all'Antico will be discussed.

Before the Nation-State: Civilizations, World Orders, and the Origins of Global International Relations

Abstract The dominant perspectives on International Relations (IR) focus on the rise of the Western civilization and the global expansion of the European Westphalian system as their starting point. This leads to a narrow Eurocentric understanding of IR that obscures the role and contribution of other civilizations to the evolution of world order. However, during the last 5000 years, many civilizations have risen, fallen, and survived. This essay focuses on five world orders that made their mark before the “rise of the West” or the advent of European colonialism around roughly the 16th century AD: Near Eastern, Indian, Chinese, Islamic, and Indian Oceanic. A study of classical civilizations and world orders can help IR scholars to more fully engage history and reshape the study of IR theories and concepts in several ways. It helps us to understand, and if necessary, challenge, the dominance of certain key ideas that claim to be universal and have been taken for granted as such. Moreover, studying IR from a historical–civilizational perspective opens the door to understanding both material and ideational relationships among states and societies. It also encourages a shift in IR thinking from the conventional state-centric category of the “international system” to the broader framing of world order.

Plato and Classical Civilisation A Level

AbstractThe incorporation of Plato into the current OCR Classical Civilisation A Level syllabus, as part of the Love and Relationships topic (LR) presents a challenge for the classroom teacher. While the specification makes study of Plato mandatory the content description in practice effectively relegates the topic to the side-lines. Having described this problem the article goes on to suggest how Plato's ideas can be taught within the framework of the existing specification in a pupil-friendly manner which is true to the spirit of Plato's own philosophical practice.

Personal data protection and State surveillance: the risks of digital discrimination and Federal Supreme Court’s vision

This article proposes an examination of the changes that have taken place in the organization of society in the face of the advancement of new mechanisms of monitoring and state surveillance, with the objective of identifying the dangers arising from them and the risks that a new digital discrimination entails for fundamental rights. Based on a dialectical analysis, we move on to the study of the necessary transformations of consent, revisiting the classic civil law institute, now in the wake of the new General Law for the Protection of Personal Data (Law nº. 13.709/2018). Subsequently, we move on to the study of the impact brought about by the decision rendered by the Federal Supreme Court in the legal analysis of ADI (Direct Action of Unconstitutionality) nº. 6.389/DF, which deemed the provisions contained in Provisional Measure nº 954/2020 and recognized the existence, in our national legal system, of the fundamental right to informative self-determination that, with the approval of EC (Constitutional Amendment) 115/22, was inserted in art. 5, LXXIX as a fundamental right to personal data protection. Finally, it concludes by the necessary structuring of the National Data Protection Authority (ANPD), provided for in article 55-A of the LGPD (General Law for the Protection of Personal Data), representing its creation as an instrument that materializes the objective dimension of this fundamental right.

Typical advances of artificial intelligence in civil engineering

Artificial intelligence (AI) provides advanced mathematical frameworks and algorithms for further innovation and vitality of classical civil engineering (CE). Plenty of complex, time-consuming, and laborious workloads of design, construction, and inspection can be enhanced and upgraded by emerging AI techniques. In addition, many unsolved issues and unknown laws in the field of CE can be addressed and discovered by physical machine learning via merging the data paradigm with physical laws. Intelligent science and technology in CE profoundly promote the current level of informatization, digitalization, autonomation, and intellectualization. To this end, this paper provides a systematic review and summarizes the state-of-the-art progress of AI in CE for the entire life cycle of civil structures and infrastructure, including intelligent architectural design, intelligent structural health diagnosis, intelligent disaster prevention and reduction. A series of examples for intelligent architectural art shape design, structural topology optimization, computer-vision-based structural damage recognition, correlation-pattern-based structural condition assessment, machine-learning-enhanced reliability analysis, vision-based earthquake disaster evaluation, and dense displacement monitoring of structures under wind and earthquake, are given. Finally, the prospects of intelligent science and technology in future CE are discussed.

Swords, sandals, and toasted panini: delivering cine-antiquity to sixth form students

AbstractTeachers of Classics in sixth form colleges and secondary schools regularly provide extra-curricular activities alongside their bread-and-butter classes in Latin, Classical Civilisation, Ancient History, and Greek. With the on-going squeeze on the provision of these four classical subjects, it is inevitable that teachers of Classics look to other areas within their schools and colleges both to maintain and to promote the face of Classics. The purpose of this paper is to explain the delivery and the thinking behind a weekly extra-curricular activity called ‘Classics on Film’ that was set up at Peter Symonds College in 2018 and which has now continued for four years. This activity encompasses cine-antiquity; in other words, a class that focuses on films depicting the ancient world. By breaking down this project and some of its results, this paper aims to give teachers of Classics and others awareness of the methods, resources, and challenges when delivering an extra-curricular activity on cine-antiquity. Furthermore, it aims to provide a model that other teachers might adapt or use as a springboard for their own bespoke cine-antiquity activity.1

To what extent do Socratic seminar activities encourage engagement in Classical Civilisation lessons?

AbstractClassroom dialogue provides significant opportunity for students to build on their understanding of a subject. It is also a vector through which the educator can assess progress in their lessons (Alexander, 2008). The purpose of this study was to explore what effect a specific form of classroom dialogue (the Socratic seminar) has on student engagement, and consequently, their learning.

Crossing the Alps: Early Urbanism Between Northern Italy and Central Europe (900–400 BC). Edited by Lorenzo Zamboni, Manuel Fernández-Götz, and Carola Metzner-Nebelsick. Leiden: Sidestone Press 2020. Pp. 434. £166.50. ISBN 978-90-8890-961-0 (paper).

<i>Crossing the Alps: Early Urbanism Between Northern Italy and Central Europe (900–400 BC)</i>. Edited by Lorenzo Zamboni, Manuel Fernández-Götz, and Carola Metzner-Nebelsick. Leiden: Sidestone Press 2020. Pp. 434. £166.50. ISBN 978-90-8890-961-0 (paper).

Bayesian Confidence Interval for Ratio of the Coefficients of Variation of Normal Distributions: A Practical Approach in Civil Engineering

The coefficient of variation (CV) is a useful statistical tool for measuring the relative variability between multiple populations, while the ratio of CVs can be used to compare the dispersion. In statistics, the Bayesian approach is fundamentally different from the classical approach. For the Bayesian approach, the parameter is a quantity whose variation is described by a probability distribution. The probability distribution is called the prior distribution, which is based on the experimenter’s belief. The prior distribution is updated with sample information. This updating is done with the use of Bayes’ rule. For the classical approach, the parameter is quantity and an unknown value, but the parameter is fixed. Moreover, the parameter is based on the observed values in the sample. Herein, we develop a Bayesian approach to construct the confidence interval for the ratio of CVs of two normal distributions. Moreover, the efficacy of the Bayesian approach is compared with two existing classical approaches: the generalised confidence interval (GCI) and the method of variance estimates recovery (MOVER) approaches. A Monte Carlo simulation was used to compute the coverage probability (CP) and average length (AL) of three confidence intervals. The results of a simulation study indicate that the Bayesian approach performed better in terms of the CP and AL. Finally, the Bayesian and two classical approaches were applied to analyse real data to illustrate their efficacy. In this study, the application of these approaches for use in classical civil engineering topics is targeted. Two real data, which are used in the present study, are the compressive strength data for the investigated mixes at 7 and 28 days, as well as the PM2.5 air quality data of two stations in Chiang Mai province, Thailand. The Bayesian confidence intervals are better than the other confidence intervals for the ratio of CVs of normal distributions. Doi: 10.28991/CEJ-SP2021-07-010 Full Text: PDF

INTEGRASI FILSAFAT DAN AGAMA DALAM PERSPEKTIF IBNU RUSYD

This article was written with the aim of discussing the integration between religion and philosophy in the view of Ibn Rusyd. In classical civilization there have been long debates and struggles caused by differences of opinion between philosophers and jurists. One side of the philosophers based their ideas on the thinking of the intellect, while the other side argued based on revelation. Ibn Rusyd, a Muslim philosopher who was very fond of science, sought to integrate philosophy and religion. Ibn Rusyd said that Philosophy and Religion are interrelated and have the same goal, which is to seek the truth. Philosophy is the product of the mind of man and Religion is based on the revelation of God. Epistemologically, the method taken by Ibn Rusyd in order to unite religion with philosophy, by way of Ta'wil and Qiyas. This is also what he has poured in a book entitled fashl al-maqal wa taqrir ma bain al hikmah wa al-syariah min al-ittishal.

INTEGRASI FILSAFAT DAN AGAMA DALAM PERSPEKTIF IBNU RUSYD

This article was written with the aim of discussing the integration between religion and philosophy in the view of Ibn Rusyd. In classical civilization there have been long debates and struggles caused by differences of opinion between philosophers and jurists. One side of the philosophers based their ideas on the thinking of the intellect, while the other side argued based on revelation. Ibn Rusyd, a Muslim philosopher who was very fond of science, sought to integrate philosophy and religion. Ibn Rusyd said that Philosophy and Religion are interrelated and have the same goal, which is to seek the truth. Philosophy is the product of the mind of man and Religion is based on the revelation of God. Epistemologically, the method taken by Ibn Rusyd in order to unite religion with philosophy, by way of Ta'wil and Qiyas. This is also what he has poured in a book entitled fashl al-maqal wa taqrir ma bain al hikmah wa al-syariah min al-ittishal.