About the Olympics, Athenian demagogues, and the importance of cultivating a love of Latin in local communities.
Bob Simmons is an Associate Professor and Chair of Classics at Monmouth College in Monmouth, Illinois. His research interests include Athenian demagogues, political and social conflict in 5th-century Athens, and sports in ancient Greece and Rome. He is the author of Demagogues, Power, and Friendship in Classical Athens: Leaders as Friends in Aristophanes, Euripides, and Xenophon, a book published by Bloomsbury in 2023. Over the course of his career, Bob has received such recognitions as the Award for Excellence in College Teaching from the Classical Association of the Middle West and South, the Outreach Prize from the Society for Classical Studies, and the Charles Humphreys Award for Innovative Pedagogy from the American Classical League. In the summer of 2024, he served as the Co-Director of The Ancient Olympics and Daily Life in Ancient Olympia: A Hands-On History, a National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Institute for K-12 teachers.
The other Co-Director of this NEH Institute – friend of the podcast Nathalie Roy. You can learn more about Nathalie and her innovative approach to classical studies in Episode 31 and Episode 3.
How Can We Save Latin in our Public High Schools? (Bob's 2019 article for the SCS Blog)
Show Me the Money: Pliny, Trajan, and the Iselastic Games (referenced by Bob at the very end of the episode)
Recorded in July of 2024
Quintilian is supported by a Bridge Initiative Grant from the Committee for the Promotion of Latin and Greek, a division of the Classical Association of the Middle West and South.
Music: "Echo Canyon Instrumental" by Clive Romney
Comments or questions about this podcast may be directed to ryangsellers@gmail.com. Thanks for listening! If you're enjoying Quintilian, please leave us a rating and/or a review on your favorite podcast distribution platform.