This morning, only a few hours after I watched the first episode of Mary Beard's BBC series Meet The Romans (and wished I had watched it years ago, for it is a master class in how to engage the public) I picked up my phone, and read of the threatened closure of the classics department at the University of Vermont.

The words of UVM classics chair John Franklin especially caught my attention: “If trained people are not there [teaching], then white supremacists will hold the field and they wi...