Classics in the Modern World brings together a collection of distinguished international contributors to discuss the features and implications of a 'democratic turn' in modern perceptions of ancient Greece and Rome. It examines how Greek and Roman material has been involved with issues of democracy, both in political culture and in the greater diffusion of classics in recent times outside the elite classes. By looking at individual case studies from theatre, film, fiction, TV, radio, museums, and popular media, and through area studies that consider trends over time in particular societies, the volume explores the relationship between Greek and Roman ways of thinking and modern definitions of democratic practices and approaches, enabling a wider re-evaluation of the role of ancient Greece and Rome in the modern world.

Lorna Hardwick is Emeritus Professor of Classical Studies at the Open University. She has published books and articles on Greek drama and on Greek and Latin poetry and historiography and its reception in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. She is editor of the Classical Receptions Journal and co-series editor of the Classical Presences series (OUP). Stephen Harrison is Fellow and Tutor in Classics at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, and Professor of Latin Literature in the University of Oxford. He is author of books on Vergil, Horace, and Apuleius and of a range of pieces on classical reception in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.