What exactly is a gladiator? And what about the Trojan Horse? And where does the Olympic flame come from? Did 300 Spartans really – as in the film – fight thousands of enemies? All questions to which the answers lie in antiquity.

In the first year of secondary school, you learn the basics of Latin. Latin is the language of the Romans, a people who ruled large parts of the world for centuries, including a very large part of the Netherlands. In the second year, you start with Greek. You will naturally learn the Greek alphabet, which is different from ours. In the beginning, it seems a bit like secret code. You will find that you soon become familiar with this alphabet and can read and write it.

During lessons in the lower school, we read simple Latin and Greek texts, which also teach us all about the life and way of thinking of Greeks and Romans. This way, you find out why the things they wrote, thought, built, and made are still important to people today: great Romans such as Julius Caesar wrote down their experiences in Latin.

Great poets like Homer lay the foundations on which modern writers and artists still build. And philosophers like Plato and Seneca pondered why the world is the way it is and what it means to lead a good life. In the fourth year, you can continue with both languages or just with Latin or Greek to obtain a Gymnasium diploma.