The Sixth Form Classics Dinner took place on Monday. In honour of Mr Franklin’s imminent retirement, OA Classicists from Mr Franklin’s era of teaching at Abingdon were invited, and it was lovely to welcome back many familiar faces. In combination with current staff and sixth-formers, they enjoyed a dinner in the pavilion, a space dramatically transformed from the small pond and garden between the Amey Theatre and the Head’s Garden remembered by the OAs. Before the meal we were treated to a lecture on the ancient work which Mr Franklin is currently translating, Vergil’s Aeneid: Dr Rebecca Armstrong of St. Hilda’s College, Oxford explored some of the oddities of time and space in the Aeneid, particularly how Vergil matched Aeneas’ voyage with the contemporaneous one of Odysseus.
