Dear Mary: How can I prove that the Romans are better than the Greeks?

From Professor Mary Beard


Q. I’m having a bit of trouble in the office. Where I work we teach both the ancient Greeks and the Romans. I have always been a Roman girl myself. Never mind some of their nastier sides (OK, none of us would have fancied a long day in the Colosseum), the Romans really do have so much more going for them. They were much nicer to women for a start, they freed a lot more of their slaves than any Greeks ever did and Virgil is the greatest poet the world ever saw. But most of my colleagues take a different view. I’m feeling a bit in the out crowd and, more to the point, worried about my promotion prospects. Any advice?

A. The signs are that the public mood is swinging in your favour, as was evidenced by your triumph over Boris at the recent Greece vsRome debate held by Intelligence Squared, when a vast crowd of young classicists voted for your defence of Rome over Boris’s defence of Greece.