UK Latin Course Being Revised to Reflect ‘Diversity’ of Roman World

A famous Latin course published by Cambridge University Press is to be reworked to contain more “diversity” despite criticism that it will damage the subject.

Originally printed in the 1970s, the Cambridge Latin Course (CLC), a series of extremely well known Latin language textbooks printed by Cambridge University Press, is to be revised from its original edition to include more references to ethnic and gender diversity.

According to a report by The Guardian, the long-loved textbooks are to have certain characters added to them to better represent the gender and “ethnic diversity” of the Roman world, while elements deemed to be problematic are due to be airbrushed out.

One lecturer within Cambridge has said that the changes are being made in order to engage students who have reportedly become “more aware of power dynamics and misogyny” to engage better with the material.

The forthcoming changes to the textbooks represent only the most recent left-wing attempt at changing how the Classics are taught, with previous attempts including a guide which pushed teachers to use modern material to teach Latin rather than ancient text.

Published earlier this year, Teaching Latin: Contexts, Theories, Practices emphasised that instructors could engage their pupils by using Taylor Swift song lyrics, or by showing their class Minecraft videos reportedly shot entirely in Latin.

Meanwhile, lecturers within at least some University departments appear to be dealing with increased moral scrutiny from progressive inquisitors, with one academic saying that he had been labelled a “white supremacist” for his interest in the ancient world.

“Folks who want to defend the moral neutrality and political independence of looking at the ancient Greeks and Romans on their own terms, receive the slogan of the day, which is to be a white supremacist,” The Times reports Dr David Butterfield of Cambridge as saying.

“White supremacy is now used as a term for those who defend the intellectual value of studying Greece and Rome in a geographically, technically, culturally separate discipline. Or those who believe in the very existence of the concept which is western civilisation,” he continued.

“In classics, the historical relationship between the classical past and the modern present is becoming allegedly morally vicious,” Butterfield went on to say.