The Ancient Legacy explores the ideas, achievements, questions and problems bequeathed to us by the ancient peoples of western culture-- the  writers and thinkers of Greece, Rome, and elsewhere.  When studying this legacy of the ancients of western culture, we encounter monumental and fascinating views by great minds who happened to live in a different time and place from our own.  Yet, even today, the "grandeur that was Greece, and the glory that was Rome" continue to shape our personal and cultural beliefs, and our values and institutions, regardless of our race or ethnicity.  The ancients wrestled with the mysteries of the human condition, as do we.  The "chronicles" of these wrestling matches appear in their literature, art, drama, and philosophical writings.

As we look at this heritage, we not only explore the times and beliefs of our intellectual ancestors, but we also investigate the shape their ideas have given to our western cultures in contemporary times.  When we examine our world through the lenses of ancient authors, we expose ourselves as much as we reveal the ancients.  In doing so, we learn something about how our own minds and attitudes have been affected by those who long ago shaped parts of our mental horizons, and at the same time, to the extent that what they say differs from our conscious beliefs, we come face to face with surprising alternatives to the guidelines by which we live our lives, and so we find ourselves put to the test. So often we question what relevance the study of ancient texts has to our lives today.  However, to better understand the world in which we live today, reflection on modern ways of thinking can help us explore questions such as: What do ancient authors have to say to us personally?  What do they have to tell us about love and duty, justice and power, peace and war?  What can we learn from them about the ways that human beings behave? How does the world look different now from then?  In comparison to ancient peoples, how well do we, as contemporary human beings, understand justice, love, happiness, and our other most cherished goals?  Maybe most importantly, we, with these ancient thinkers, continue the search for the answer to the first and last of all questions: "What does it mean to be ?"

These Ancient Legacy pages introduce a few of the major moments of the classical, Biblical, and early Christian cultures, which continue to have significant influence on contemporary cultures indebted to western development.  They are not intended to provide comprehensive information on western culture's ancient heritage, but to point toward directions for further intellectual growth, education, and expansion in the ever-changing world of ideas.

The pages of the Legacy Project are composed of short articles written by undergraduate students in the University Honors Program at the University of New Mexico as well as links to existing Internet and Web resources. Among a myriad of other topics, these Ancient Legacy pages will explore subjects such as the origins of contemporary science and mathematics, the writings of the Presocratics and Euclid, Hesiod's concept of history, Aristotle's and Plato's ancient political science, art, early medical science, epic poetry by Homer and Virgil, Euripides' and Aeschylus' tragic drama, Aristophanes' and Terence's comic drama, Socrates' philosophical dialogues, Augustine's confessional autobiography, and so on.

We invite you to venture with us through these ages and pages of ancient peoples, places, and ideas.

Legacy series lecture by V. B. Price