Old Wisdom in Modern Ways

“Veni, Vidi, Vici.”

Caesar’s famous words — Latin for “I came, I saw, I conquered” — could be repeated by some local high school scholars on the afternoon of April 12 as they depart the Holy Cross campus.

Each year, the College’s classics department hosts Classics Day and invites high school students to campus to challenge their knowledge of ancient history, classical mythology and language. Hundreds of high school students involved in classical studies across New England participate in a day of contests, including a certamen (“competition,” in Latin), costume contest, and chariot race.

This year, more than 400 students from St.George’s School in Newport, Providence Classical School in Providence, St. Sebastian’s High School in Needham, among others, will channel Homer, Thucydides and Plutarch.

During the certamen, the student groups are split into upper and lower levels based on their knowledge and year of study in the classical subjects. Holy Cross classics majors act as judges on Latin grammar, history, and culture. The four-student teams endure an hour of challenging questions created by the college students.

Following the certamen, the students participate in the costume contest and chariot race.

“The costumes have been very creative in recent years,” says Toni Methe, the department’s administrative assistant, who organizes the event and remembers in particular a “phenomenal” Trojan Horse costume. “The students get very involved in Classics Day, and there’s a lot of competition out there.”

The costume contest is judged on more than great design; students must be knowledgeable about their character in order to proceed to the final rounds.

The chariot race — which takes place around the Hart Center — is another occasion for inventiveness. Each school creates a chariot that must be four feet high, include four wheels and be pulled by “student horses.” Many are covered in Latin phrases and classical accessories, such as vine leaves and gold.

At the end of the day, the student winners in all contest categories are awarded gold and purple trophies of Athena Nike, “the winged victory” goddess.

Much like the subject it celebrates, Classics Day has a rich 36-year history. Eta Sigma Phi, the national Classics Honor Society, cultivated the idea for this event in the early 1970s, when they began “an outreach program with the local classics community, going to schools and bringing students to campus,” says Professor William Ziobro, who graduated from Holy Cross in 1966. From that, the idea for Classics Day evolved.

The outreach eventually turned into a day of contest and lectures — and the biggest event the department sponsors. The purpose has always been to encourage students to study Latin and ancient civilization in college.

When Rev. Edward Vodoklys, S.J., senior lecturer in the classics department, was a student at Holy Cross in the early ’70s when the event involved Homeric plays and lectures from key influential figures of the classics world, like professors Barbara McCarthy and Bill Fitzgerald.

Maureen Gassert, senior classics major, has fond memories of participating in Classics Day when she was a student at Hingham High; and she says, “it’s a chance for Holy Cross to showcase one of the best classics departments in the country.”