Abstract
In the period of consolidation of the industrialized European nation states, especially in the late 19th early 20th centuries, classical studies were incorporated into the educational model responsible for the patriotic formation of their future citizens. Reflecting on this educational and political dimensions, several classicists of the period turned their research to an understanding of the pedagogical models applied by successful ancient civilizations (such as classical Athens or classical Sparta) in order to propose new avenues for the challenges of the present: thus they turn to the reflections by Girard (1889), Wilamowitz-Moellendorf (1901, 1914-5), Freeman (1907) and Jaeger (2013). This pedagogical impulse was closely linked to the socio-political conjunctures of the time, including the movement that culminated in the two World Wars between 1914 and 1945. It should be remembered that violent forms of state control, manifested mainly as prerogatives of police and prison, together with more subtle forms of power - through compulsory education, for example - are factors that have contributed to the intensification of tensions among the National States at the time. As the studies by Luciano Canfora, François Hartog, and Suzanne Marchand suggest, classical philology has turned out to be a major cultural front among the many which came into contention in this complicated historical period. The aim of this article is to understand this process and its consequences for the development of the field of classical studies.
Classical reception; Education; History of classical studies