ABSTRACT
The appearance of a cultural phenomenon as a subject for university study is not necessarily a good sign. Sometimes it is a sign that the phenomenon itself has become so alien that people who in a different time or place would have absorbed it from their parents, their environment or their school teachers must be taught it in a classroom. This is what happened with the classical tradition, a subject that appeared in university syllabi around the middle of the twentieth century. Earlier generations of students, who had learned Caesar, Horace and Vergil (at least) in school, would recognize on their own many classical allusions, forms and imitations, and would recognize many more if they were pointed out.That Shakespeare drew on Plutarch for his knowledge of Julius Caesar was of interest to students of Shakespeare, but not particularly to students of Plutarch.
