Dear Prof. Ulf Hedetoft, Dean of Humanities at the University of Copenhagen,

We urge you to maintain a full programme of Ancient Greek instruction for undergraduates (and others) at Copenhagen, bearing in mind the following considerations:

1. It is beyond contemplation that Copenhagen should be the only capital of a major European country without full-service Classics provision.

2. The teaching of Greek, together with that of other Classical subjects, fills a national and strategic need for cultural awareness and knowledge, as your Faculty has already acknowledged.

3. The Copenhagen Greek and Latin department is a beacon of outstanding scholarship internationally. Classicists around the world benefit richly from, for instance, the results of M.H. Hansen’s Polis project and S. Ebbesen’s projects on the Aristotelian tradition.

4. Because all western nations alike share the heritage of Greek and Roman antiquity, research excellence in this field makes a profound international impact it is difficult for other arts and humanities subjects to achieve. Furthermore, compromise to the Classics dept. in Copenhagen means compromise to the department’s international partners and collaborators too. The subject as a whole will be poorer without Copenhagen.