In the nineteenth century the college entrance exam required the prospective student to submit a translation of a selected passage from Xenophon's Anabasis to show proficiency in Greek. Nowadays you would be fortunate to find a college graduate who had heard of Xenophon.
I ran across a very tragic tale from St. Paul, Minnesota. This story is indescribably sad but not surprising to anyone who has read the Anabasis, or Petronius's Satyricon, or certain of the works of Lucian. Unfortunately because of the actions of five Ivy-league educated individuals who ignored the evidence of the ancient world, we probably will see a lot more stories like it.
