BY CALLISTO LODWICK

A reverent audience in St Mark’s Church sits to attention. Heads are raised, breaths held, eyes wide open, all ready to witness renowned classicist and author Natalie Haynes down three diet Cokes in quick succession.

‘I was in London yesterday, and have to be back in London by tomorrow,’ she explains. ‘These are very necessary.’

The author’s remarkable consumption of caffeinated beverages serves as a reminder of just how miraculous it is that St Andrews, tiny as it is, can boast such a wide variety of acclaimed visitors, especially those of literary splendour. On the 3rd of October, Topping and Company booksellers hosted not one, but two, famed classicists to create an astonishing, educational, and entertaining day of discovery about the ancient world.

Image source: Toppings and Company Booksellers

The day kicked off with Natalie Haynes, perhaps best known for her novels retelling ancient myths, ready to discuss her new title Divine Might, a nonfiction title cataloguing the various goddesses of ancient Greek and Roman mythology that discusses their relevance in both the ancient and modern world. While I came in expecting a serious discussion closer to the heavy tone her novels can take, instead I was delighted to be greeted with a light, comical style that reveals Haynes’ heritage in stand-up: indeed, the audience may as well have been in the studio listening to her record an episode of Natalie Haynes Stands Up for the Classics. The forty-five minute talk was divided neatly into roughly fifteen minute sections where one individual goddess (or group of goddesses) had their tales retold in a style that veered between heart wrenching and comical (Greek myth gets heavy sometimes). While a lesser presenter may have struggled to bridge the gap between the two moods, Haynes expertly jumped between them: nothing felt odd or out of place. Laughs echoed towards the church beams incessantly, and the audience left feeling more knowledgeable both about ancient myth and—thanks to one particularly memorable digression—the size of prehistoric penguins.

The evening saw the topic move on from the divine to those that were treated as divine: Mary Beard graced St Andrews with her presence to discuss Emperor of Rome. As keen-eyed readers might have surmised from the title, Emperor of Rome isn’t a history of emperors in the plural—instead, it’s a discussion of how it felt to be the emperor of Rome: how they ate, how they dressed, where they slept. Beard goes on to discuss the lives of those who served the emperors, like the countless numbers of enslaved people who made the imperial palace on Rome’s famous Palatine Hill their home. Said palace was the subject of Beard’s talk, which filled both the floor and balcony of Younger Hall. Beard discussed first the archaeological evidence that remains in the palace (spoilers: there isn’t much) before turning to what it must have been like to inhabit such a place: how the emperor had no one he could trust amongst his sea of slaves, bodyguards, and advisors, and how the dark, labyrinthine architecture of the building contributed to a sense on imprisonment. And then, of course, there were the endless slaves memorialised in all-too-brief epitaphs, or those who only live on through their hastily scrawled graffiti: the most memorable example, which Beard saved for last, was a depiction of Christ on the cross with a donkey head—one enslaved person mocking another for his minority religion.

Both Haynes and Beard finished off their presentations with a chance for the audience to ask questions—otherwise known as the time where students sit sweating in their seats as they frantically search for a probing inquiry that will prove just how clever they are. Thankfully, the St Andrews community—and in particular, the students—delivered: there were no awkward silences or overly long gaps (though Haynes pre-empted her request for questions by saying she would talk for an extra fifteen minutes if we didn’t have any). Those who didn’t get a chance to ask their question had another chance at the dedications, where both speakers were charming, gracious hosts.

Haynes and Beard both provided wonderful events for the general public. But what did I, a classics student, think of the talks? The information was not necessarily new: Haynes focused on myths I (rather nerdily) have an encyclopaedic knowledge of, and Beard’s tour of the imperial palace and the graffiti found within was familiar to me from previous lectures and trips to Rome. However, it was the way the two presented the material—in Haynes’ case, with humour, enthusiasm, and charm; and in Beard’s, the deep exploration of the material and psychological realities of existing in Imperial Rome—that made it so entertaining and fresh for both seasoned academics and the general public (both Haynes and Beard pulled in an audience evenly mixed between the two demographics). Topping and Company has hosted another set of fantastic talks with brilliant speakers, which only makes me prouder of our little seaside community and our dedication to academic and intellectual excellence.

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