ABSTRACT
Classics proved an ideal intellectual formation for a career in international affairs. It gives a linguistic grounding for the most demanding languages and cultural touch points in countries with a common classical heritage as far afield as South Asia. Despite changes in the manner of recruitment, Classics has remained well represented in the Foreign Service, which suggests some affinity between the subject and the profession. The Empires of Athens and Rome are studies in defence and foreign policy challenges. Public life is depicted in detail, for good and ill, in their literature and art. Both prepare classicists for understanding of governments, politics and geopolitics. But the breadth and humanity of a classical education imparts an early appreciation of the vagaries, inconsistencies and failings of individuals and states and an inclination toward pragmatism, which is often the key to diplomacy.
