Classics or classical studies is the study of classical antiquity. It encompasses the study of the Greco-Roman world of its languages and literature but of Greco-Roman philosophy and archaeology. Traditionally in the West, the study of the Greek and Roman classics is considered one of the cornerstones of the humanities and a fundamental element of a rounded education; the study of classics has therefore traditionally been a cornerstone of a typical elite education. Study encompasses a time-period of history from the mid-2nd millennium BC to the 6th century AD; the word classics is derived from the Latin adjective classicus, meaning "belonging to the highest class of citizens". The word was used to describe the members of the highest class in ancient Rome. By the 2nd century AD the word was used in literary criticism to describe writers of the highest quality. For example, Aulus Gellius, in his Attic Nights, contrasts "classicus" and "proletarius" writers. By the 6th century AD, the word had acquired a second meaning.

Thus the two modern meanings of the word, referring both to literature considered to be of the highest quality, to the standard texts used as part of a curriculum, both derive from Roman use. In the Middle Ages and education were intertwined. Medieval education taught students to imitate earlier classical models, Latin continued to be the language of scholarship and culture, despite the increasing difference between literary Latin and the vernacular languages of Europe during the period. While Latin was hugely influential, Greek was studied, Greek literature survived solely in Latin translation; the works of major Greek authors such as Hesiod, whose names continued to be known by educated Europeans, were unavailable in the Middle Ages. In the thirteenth century, the English philosopher Roger Bacon wrote that "there are not four men in Latin Christendom who are acquainted with the Greek and Arabic grammars."Along with the unavailability of Greek authors, there were other differences between the classical canon known today and the works valued in the Middle Ages.

Catullus, for instance, was entirely unknown in the medieval period. The popularity of different authors waxed and waned throughout the period: Lucretius, popular during the Carolingian period, was read in the twelfth century, while for Quintilian the reverse is true; the Renaissance led to the increasing study of both ancient literature and ancient history, as well as a revival of classical styles of Latin. From the 14th century, first in Italy and increasingly across Europe, Renaissance Humanism, an intellectual movement that "advocated the study and imitation of classical antiquity", developed. Humanism saw a reform in education in Europe, introducing a wider range of Latin authors as well as bringing back the study of Greek language and literature to Western Europe; this reintroduction was initiated by Petrarch and Boccaccio who commissioned a Calabrian scholar to translate the Homeric poems. This humanist educational reform spread from Italy, in Catholic countries as it was adopted by the Jesuits, in countries that became Protestant such as England and the Low Countries, in order to ensure that future clerics were able to study the New Testament in the original language.

The late 17th and 18th centuries are the period in Western European literary history, most associated with the classical tradition, as writers consciously adapted classical models. Classical models were so prized that the plays of William Shakespeare were rewritten along neoclassical lines, these "improved" versions were performed throughout the 18th century. From the beginning of the 18th century, the study of Greek became important relative to that of Latin. In this period Johann Winckelmann's claims for the superiority of the Greek visual arts influenced a shift in aesthetic judgements, while in the literary sphere, G. E. Lessing "returned Homer to the centre of artistic achievement". In the United Kingdom, the study of Greek in schools began in the late 18th century; the poet Walter Savage Landor claimed to have been one of the first English schoolboys to write in Greek during his time at Rugby School. The 19th century saw the influence of the classical world, the value of a classical education, decline in the US, where the subject was criticised for its elitism.

By the 19th century, little new literature was still being written in Latin – a practice which had continued as late as the 18th century – and a command of Latin declined in importance. Correspondingly, classical education from the 19th century onwards began to de-emphasise the importance of the ability to write and speak Latin. In the United Kingdom this process took longer than elsewhere. Composition continued to be the dominant classical skill in England until the 1870s, when new areas within the discipline began to increase in popularity. In the same decade came the first challenges to the requirement of Greek at the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, though it would not be abolished for another 50 years. Though the influence of classics as the dominant mode of education in Europe and North America was in decline in the 19th century, the discipline was evolving in the same period. Classical scholarship was becoming more systematic and scientific with the "new philology" created at the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th century.

Its scope was broadening: it was during the 19th century that ancient history and classical archaeology began to be se

The Temple de l'Observatoire was a Protestant Christian church in Brussels, started in 1834 when a group left Brussels Protestant Church and called French Methodist missionary, Philippe Boucher, to serve as their pastor. Preferring "evangelical, pious" preaching to the "rationalistic" and "cool and academic" ministry of pastor Chrétien-Henri Vent; the church met in hired premises on rue Verte, before in 1837, with the help of funding from the USA, constructing their own place of worship on boulevard de l'Observatoire: the Temple de l'Observatoire.'Mr. Boucher's Chapel' was at the time only the second dedicated place of Protestant worship in Brussels, the first building in neo-gothic style built in Belgium and at one time was the oldest surviving building on the boulevard Bischoffsheim; the second pastor was the Swiss preacher, Léonard Anet, who served 1843–1860. Over the years famous members/adherents at the Temple included Charles Lagrange, professor at the military academy and author of works on the subject of the Bible and science, Jacques de Lalaing, a sculptor and painter, for some time, General Gallet, aide-de-camp to King Albert I.

In 1836 the Belgian Evangelical Society was formed and in 1849 this was reorganised into a denomination, the Belgian Christian Missionary Church, along presbyterian lines and adhering to the 1561 Belgic Confession. The Observatoire joined the denomination in 1853. In 1837 a Calvinist-minded group broke away from the more Wesleyan-oriented church to form L’Église de la rue Belliard); the two congregations reunited and separated again on more than one occasion, before reuniting in 1973 as Brussels Botanique Protestant church. Around 1974 the difficult decision was taken to demolish the Temple and the new Temple du Botanique was constructed on the same spot and dedicated in 1977, where the church meets to this day. Brussels Botanique Protestant church is now part of the United Protestant Church in Belgium denomination. Succession of ministers at the Temple: 1834–1843 Philippe Boucher 1836–1837 Denis Lourde-Laplace 1843–1869 Léonard Anet 1857–1870 Eugène Filhol 1871–1873 Philippe Boucher 1873–1874 Adolphe DESQUARTIERS 1875–1885 James Hocart 1885–1889 A. Legros 1890–1895 Rodolphe Meyhoffer 1895–1900 Auguste Rivier 1900–1919 Edmond Durand 1919–1922 Henri Anet 1922–1924 Kennedy Anet 1924–1930 Oswald Michotte 1930–1931 Kennedy ANET 1931–1946 Raoul BORDARIER 1946–1949 Fernand BARTH 1947–1948 Emile JEQUIER 1948–1961 Albert DE HALLER 1961–1966 Bernard ROBERT 1966–1971 Bernard COVIAUX 1972- Wilfred HOYOIS

Mary Fish Noyes Silliman was a matriarch in Revolutionary and post-colonial Connecticut and the subject of the 1993 film Mary Silliman’s War. Mary Fish was born on May 1736, in Stonington, Connecticut to Joseph Fish and Mary Fish. At the age of fifteen, she entered the school of Sarah Osborn, an accomplished woman and a model of female independence, she married John Noyes, the son of the Rev. Joseph Noyes of the First Church in New Haven, on November 16, 1758, her new husband was a former rector of the Hopkins Grammar School in New Haven who preached engaged in modest dealings in the shipping trade, suffered from epilepsy. Together, they lived in a house on Elm Street in New Haven and had three children who survived to adulthood: Joseph in 1761, John in 1762 and James in 1764. John Noyes father died in the fall of 1767, he was intestate, Mary became his executrix. All three sons went on to enter the ministry, following in the footsteps of their father and grandfathers. Mary and Colonel Gold Selleck Silliman, a lawyer and member of one of Fairfield County’s most influential families, were married on May 24, 1775 in Stonington following a courtship sustained by frequent letters.

The new couple moved to Gold’s farm in Fairfield soon after. Their marriage was rooted in lasting friendship, deep affection, mutual respect. Mary and Gold had two children together: Gold Selleck in October 1777 and Benjamin in August 1779. Knowing that military involvement in the American Revolutionary War could rob her of her second husband through absence or death, Mary learned the workings of his farm as well as knowledge of his financial affairs. Mary fell ill with dysentery in 1776 but upon recovery, ran the Silliman farm, entertained militia officers, housed refugees of war, managed the labor of several enslaved workers and her adult stepson, drew accounts, collected rent on her late first husband’s farms, all while her husband led the state militia. On May 2, 1779, a band of Loyalists captured Gold and his son from a previous marriage, holding them prisoner on a Long Island farm. At the time of their kidnapping, Mary was six months pregnant with their second child. Money was a constant struggle, as the family assets suffered from Gold’s indefinite absence and General Washington’s refusal to offer assistance to Gold who, though an officer, was not on active service at the time of his capture.

Gold survived a bout of smallpox early in his captivity and went without the comforts of adequate food and clothing. Correspondence between husband and wife was sparse and delayed. On the morning of July 7, 1779, a British fleet arrived to mount a full-scale attack on Fairfield, Mary evacuated her household to North Stratford. Throughout her husband’s captivity, she wrote letters to well-connected men, like Connecticut’s Governor Trumbull, in order to appeal for their help in securing an exchange for Gold; because the Patriots had no acceptable prisoner to exchange for Gold, some of his friends decided to take one. They chose Tory leader and Chief Justice Thomas Jones of Long Island. On November 6, with the consent of the Governor, Captain David Hawley of Stratford and Captain Samuel Lockwood of Norwalk captured both the Judge and a young man named Willett, whom they hoped to exchange for Billy. Jones was held in Mary's home for a few days. On April 27, 1780, a boat which Mary had hired departed Black Rock Harbor with Judge Jones aboard to return him and bring Silliman back.

By coincidence that same day, Silliman’s New York captors had chosen to send him home, so both prisoners returned safely home. Following Gold’s death on July 21, 1789, Mary was left in considerable debt, she sold two of her enslaved workers timing their sale to take advantage of a law being considered by the Connecticut Assembly that would have reduced their value. Despite financial troubles, she was determined to send her sons Selleck and Benjamin to Yale so that they could benefit from the same education as their brothers and father. Both sons studied law at New Haven. In April 1804, Mary and Dr. John Dickinson of Middletown were married by her son James in Wallingford. After a series of illnesses and misfortunes, Mary died on July 2, 1818. Mary Fish Noyes Silliman possessed influence and tact, for which she has been remembered in publications and film, she instructed her children in religion and manners in order to develop in them inner grace as well as scriptural knowledge. She commanded moral authority derived from her ability to translate her piety into action, she was competent in her role as a contributor to the household.

As her sons grew independent and had children of their own, Mary assumed the role of family matriarch and nurturing her spreading family circle. Her son Benjamin described her as a “heroic woman.” Historians Joy Day Buel and Richard Buel, Jr. describe Mary as “less a daughter of the Revolution than a child of the Puritans.” The Silliman Family Papers, housed at Yale University, include a wealth of Mary’s writing in the form of her journal and letters, are a rich resource. The story of Mary’s experience during the American Revolution is depicted in the 1993 film Mary Silliman’s War, produced by Heritage Films; the film, based on the Buels' The Way of Duty, seeks to dramatize three major themes surrounding the Revolution: the war’s divisiveness within colonial communities, the role of women in the struggles of the Revolution, the role of religion in light of the war. Mary is portrayed as a devout, prosperous matron determined against all odds to reunite with her beloved husband. Women in the American Revolution List of plays and films about the American Revolution First Great Awakening