我是来自中国深圳Basis国际学校的一名国际学生。我很幸运的有机会接触到古典学，因而改变了我的人生。在我七年级的时候，我的学校开设了拉丁语选修课，于是我选择了它，因为一，我认为学习一门外语很酷(是的，我当时认为这只是一门典型的外语)，二，没有其他选修课对我更有吸引力。我就这样开始了我的古典文学之旅，尽管当时我不太清楚它是一门怎样的学问。
就像很多人一样，刚开始的时候，我在拉丁语方面遇到了很多困难;这不仅仅是因为我对它一无所知，还因为我的母语是汉语。尽管两种都是历史悠久的语言，他们却没有什么相似处。汉语中，我们没有拉丁语的语形变化, 和许多其他特征，所以要理解这些语法规则是很不容易的。在第一堂拉丁语课上，我就被翻译一个拉丁语句子的难度吓到了。但与此同时，看着白板上的那些图表，我对这门语言的整洁性感到惊叹，并决定要好好学习它。
在接下来的两年的拉丁语课上，我学到了很多有趣的事实，比如一个典型的罗马房子的结构或者罗马鱼露，还有罗马从7个国王到共和国到帝国的历史概要，。但是，因为这些课主要讲的是拉丁语语法，所以没有深入地探讨罗马的社会、政治和文化方面的知识，所以我开始自己探索。一天在图书馆里，我看了李维的《Ab Urbe Condita》，讲的是7个国王和第二次布匿战争。在阅读了7位国王之后，我明白了文化和社会不仅仅是模仿希腊人或者简单的平民对贵族。在第二次布匿战争中，我感受到了罗马军事力量和复杂的政治体系。这是我第一次接触古典学，并且我很感兴趣。
因此，我在2019年夏天参加了由学校的辅导员推荐的罗马Calder Classics计划。看到往年的活动照片，我知道这不仅仅是关于学习拉丁语，而且是关于罗马的现代和古代文化。于是，我参加了Rome: Reading Latin+Ancient History旅程。在2019年7月18日，我终于来到了梦寐以求的罗马。在接下来的12天里，我度过了人生其中一段最难忘的时光。
在这个项目中，我利用上午的时间翻译了李维、小普林尼、西塞罗等罗马著名作家的古文，并在下午参观了庞培、罗马议会、Antica Ostia等罗马考古遗址。虽然在参加这个项目之前，我对古典文学有一个大致的了解，但这个项目仍然为我打开了一个新世界。工作人员们(Crispin和Sarah)把拉丁语和罗马文化融合得很好。例如，有一天早上，我们翻译了塞内加的《Epistulae Morales》，56.1-2，书中他抱怨了一个澡堂。那天下午，我们就去了卡拉卡拉浴场，这是公元200年左右罗马最大、保存完好的浴场之一。亲眼看过以后，我能更加了解罗马浴堂文化的重要性和发展，也使翻译的工作变得更容易和深刻。
事实上，这与我在学校的拉丁语课上所学的完全不同。我意识到这些文本不仅仅是关于翻译，也是关于他们的文化，这些复杂的文化让我深感兴趣。我们去了佩特罗尼乌斯提到的庞培的 CAVE CANEM马赛克的地板，参观了恺撒被刺杀的地方，看了奥维德在《阿玛托利亚》中写的Circus Maximus马戏团。当我在这些地方旅行时，我明白了我翻译的目的:它是关于文化、历史、社会、政治，而不仅仅是语言本身，因为现在没有人说拉丁语，除了梵蒂冈。意识到这一点后，幡然醒悟。在这个项目之前，我一直在问自己，我要不要在大学继续修读古典学呢？继续学习这种语言对我有什么好处呢？可是这个项目让我明白了古典学不只是语言翻译，也是关于历史，文学，音乐，政治和哲学，让我的视野变得更广阔了。
此外，随着我对罗马文化的了解越来越深，我也对罗马文化产生了向往。在安提卡奥斯蒂亚，我了解了hypocaust和罗马大路。这让我想知道罗马人在技术上有多先进。站在图拉真市场的中央，我情不自禁地想象着罗马公民的生活。看着参议院，我仿佛可以听到那些参议员此起彼落的争论。阅读古代文献就像在看过去的新闻，彷如生活在那个世界里，给人一种战胜时间的感觉。的确，拉丁语丰富了人们可从历史课上学到的事件，使我们能窥探罗马文化，它是最先引入民主概念的文化(公元前509年)，是第一次和最后一次统一欧洲的文化，更孕育了许多其他现代文化。
Calder Classics除了是学习历史和拉丁文的好机会，也是一趟很棒的旅程。我遇到了和我有同样兴趣的同伴，还有工作人员，他们热情地向我介绍了意大利文化，甚至有一天，当我在一家餐厅点披萨时，服务员被我标准的意大利口音(我只知道的一句话)吓了一跳。我尝试了很多意大利食物，尤其是意大利冰淇淋，我几乎每天都要吃。我们住过的泰斯塔西奥也是一个非常适合居住的地方。项目结束时，我感觉自己就像一个当地的意大利人。
这些对我来说都是珍贵的回忆，也是我继续学习古典的原因。项目结束后，我继续上拉丁语课，但没有觉得丝毫沉闷，因为参观过罗马文化的发源地以后，我更会欣赏古典学的美了，我相信这个节目让我看到了我的未来。
My name is Dominic and this is my Classics journey…
I’m an international student from Basis International School in Shenzhen, China, and my first exposure to Classics was random yet fortunate. During 7th grade, my school offered Latin class as an elective. I chose it because no other elective was very intriguing to me. I also thought it would be cool to live abroad in the future so I wanted to learn a foreign language (yes, I really thought Latin was just a typical foreign language!). Thus, I unintentionally began my journey in Classics without truly understanding what it meant and with no expectation for how fascinating it would be. That decision changed my life.
Just like many of my fellow students, I struggled with Latin at the beginning; it’s not just because I knew nothing about it, but also because of my native language, Chinese. The languages of these two great ancient cultures don’t actually fit with the other very well. In Chinese, there’s no conjugation, declension, and many other characteristics of Latin. Doubtlessly, comprehending these grammatical rules was troublesome and complicated for me. In my first Latin class, I was startled by the complexity to translate a Latin sentence. Yet at the same time, looking at all those charts on the whiteboard, (which later I learned to be conjugations and declensions) I marveled at the neatness of this language and dedicated myself to learning it no matter what.
During the next two years in the Latin class, I learned a lot of interesting facts, like the structure of a typical Roman house or Roman fish sauce, and some of the basic summary of Roman history, from the 7 Kings, to the Republic, to the Empire. However, since my class focused primarily on Latin grammar, I was never encouraged to dig deeper to explain the social, political, and cultural aspects of Rome, so I began to explore by myself. One day in a library, I saw Livy’s Ab Urbe Condita about the 7 Kings and the Second Punic War. After reading about the 7 Kings, I understood that ancient Roman culture was about much more than just copying the Greeks or simply Plebeians versus Patricians. In the Second Punic War, I observed the might of the Roman military and the complexity of the political system. After my first deep dive with Classics, I was hooked.
Thus, in the summer of 2019, I searched for a program to help me pursue my passion and I found the perfect match: Calder Classics in Rome. This organization was recommended by my school counselor, and looking at the past pictures, I was drawn to it because it was clearly not just about studying Latin, but also about Roman culture, both modern and ancient. Thus, I registered for Rome: Reading Latin + Ancient History, and by July 18th, 2019, I had finally arrived in the place that had fascinated me for so long. In the next 12 days, I experienced one of the most memorable moments of my life.
In the program, I spent my mornings translating ancient texts from various renowned Roman writers like Livy, Pliny the Younger, Cicero, etc. In the afternoons, we visited many ancient Roman archaeological sites, like Pompeii, the Roman Forum, Antica Ostia, etc. Before this program, I had taken the first steps of my Classics journey, but this experience of actually living and experiencing the culture firsthand opened so many doors to a new world for me. Indeed, the staff (Crispin and Sarah) did an amazing job in intertwining Latin with Roman culture. For instance, one morning, we translated Epistulae Morales, 56.1-2, by Seneca, in which he complained about a bathhouse. Then that afternoon, we went to the Bath of Caracalla, one of the biggest and most well-preserved bathhouses in Rome built around 200AD. From this, I could actually visualize the story I had translated earlier that day. The importance of bathhouse culture in Rome became so much easier to understand when I was able to see it with my own eyes. In addition, it also made translating the texts easier and more memorable.
This, indeed, was completely different from what I had in my Latin classes back in my school. We went to the CAVE CANEM floor in Pompeii mentioned by Petronius, visited the place of Caesar’s assassination in Pompeii’s theatre, saw the Circus Maximus which Ovid mentioned in his Ars Amatoria. As I traveled through these sites, I understood the purpose of my translation: it is about the culture, history, society, politics, not just the language itself. Traveling to Italy helped me learn more than I ever could from some bullet points in a book. After this realization, one of my greatest troubles had been solved. Before the program, I had been questioning myself about my future: do I like Classics enough to pursue it in college? What can I gain by continuing to learn this language? The Calder Classics program opened up a more comprehensive view of what Classics can be and I realized that beyond translation, I had been improving my knowledge of history, literature, theater, government, philosophy, etc. all along.
In addition, I also yearned for Roman culture as I learned more. In Antica Ostia, I learned about the hypocaust and the Via Appia. It made me wonder how advanced Roman were technologically. Standing in the middle of the Trajan Market, I couldn’t stop myself imagining how Roman citizen lived their lives. Looking agape at the Senate House, I felt I could hear the arguments from those senators. Reading and connecting with ancient texts created a sensation that defeated time; I felt as if I was reading the news from the past and living in that world. Indeed, Latin enriches the events people would learn from a plain history class, bringing Roman culture—the culture that first introduced democracy, that served as the first and the last to unite Europe, and that gave birth to many other modern cultures—back to life.
Besides studying the past and improving my Latin, the Calder Classics trip was also just about having a great time. I met awesome fellow participants, who shared the same interest with me, and staff, who introduced me to Italian culture so well that one day, at a restaurant, when I was ordering a pizza, the waiter was surprised by my indigenous Italian accent. I tried lots of Italian food, especially the suppli and gelato, which I was so obsessed with that I needed to have them every day. The place where we lived, Testaccio, is also such a nice place to live. By the end of the program, I felt as if I was a local Italian.
All of these precious memories are my key to proceed with my pursuit of Classics. After the program, I kept taking Latin. I have never gotten bored by it because I learned to appreciate the beauty of Classics by actually visiting the birthplace of Roman culture. I will continue to study Classics and I believe this Calder Classics program granted me an opportunity to peek at what my future will be all about in the years ahead.