Summary of the impact

The Cambridge Greek and Latin Classics Series is central to the University's commitment to the teaching and spread of knowledge of Greek and Latin at a time when these languages are under increasing pressure in schools and HEIs. Hardie, Hunter and Oakley are General Editors of a series of Greek and Latin texts with commentaries aimed at a broad public readership, from the higher levels of school onwards. This series, now numbering 94 volumes in print, has, through its international adoption in schools and colleges, greatly broadened the range of texts which are accessible at all levels and changed the way these texts are read and studied. The series has huge brand recognition as `the Green and Yellows' (or `Green and Golds' in the USA) and has had considerable economic impact within the book market.

Underpinning research

The underpinning research is of two kinds: the editorial activities of the General Editors and the writing of the books themselves (ten volumes published since 1993 are by Cambridge researchers).

Hardie (University Lecturer at Cambridge 1990-2002, Senior Research Fellow since 2006), Hunter (University Lecturer at Cambridge since 1987, Regius Professor of Greek since 2001), Oakley (Kennedy Professor of Latin since 2007), together with two retired Cambridge colleagues (Easterling and Kenney), have been the General Editors of Cambridge Greek and Latin Classics throughout this assessment period. The on-going work of the series editors has changed what it is to write a commentary on a Classical text. The commentary format has, since antiquity, been a standard way to approach the reading of Greek and Latin texts. Traditionally, commentaries have sought to provide a repository of views about the text and to act as a reference work on topics raised (often incidentally) by the text being studied. The style had not altered much for decades and, with changes in educational curricula and general knowledge of ancient languages, this format was a serious obstacle to informed — and affordable — access to ancient texts for a broad range of readers.

In the Cambridge Greek and Latin Classics, first place is given to the commentator's understanding of the text, rather than to a discussion of the difficulties in the way of understanding; readers are immediately confronted with what the text means, not what it does not mean. Notes are also cleared of much of the quotation of other Greek and Latin which stands between a wide readership and the text being studied. The series is virtually unique in combining linguistic help for students with sophisticated literary and cultural analysis, which also makes the volumes required reading for scholars.

The General Editors devote considerable time and expertise to both the substance and the style of consecutive drafts sent by individual authors, paying particular attention to accessibility, clarity of exposition, the explanation of linguistic and theoretical issues free from both jargon and technical terms no longer in general currency, and a principal focus on literary effects and their meaning. Recent years have seen greater concentration on the explanation of grammar and syntax, in order to meet the requirements of new audiences and wide adoption in schools. Particular thought is given to the choice of texts and how individual texts will be used in the classroom; Hunter 2002 (see Section 3 below) has discussed the relationship between authorship and style of commentary. Euripides' Medea, for example, is regularly the first tragedy read by learners of Greek: the Green and Yellow edition devotes a special section, aimed at these learners, to the explanation of ordinary features of tragic Greek and tragic metre; these sections are regularly used by classes which are not specifically reading the Medea.

The research (often of many years) involved in preparing a commentary for the series requires not just a sophisticated command of the relevant ancient and modern material, but also study of how to meet the aims of the series; the series' success and international standing bring their own demands and expectations, evidenced by, for example, the award in 2012-2013 of AHRC research leave and of Visiting Fellowships for work on volumes for the series (`Greek lyric selection' and `Herodotus 1' respectively).

References to the research

All outputs can be supplied by the University of Cambridge on request.

Details of the impact

Cambridge Greek and Latin Classics has become the recognised leader in the field of text commentary all over the world; the prescribed reading and set texts in schools and colleges is often determined by the availability of a volume in the `Green and Yellow' series. The series offers reasonably priced, authoritative editions, which are always readily available (volumes in the series do not go out of print). To meet the needs of both individuals and libraries, they appear simultaneously in both paper and hardback editions. Over the life of the series, some 312,000 volumes have been sold for c. £3.6 million, of which c. £2 m. is export revenue for the British economy; in the current REF period, some 50,000 volumes have been sold, making at least £500k in export revenue. Sales are divided roughly equally between UK/Europe and the USA/Rest of World, with particularly strong reach (apart from UK) in USA, Germany and the Netherlands (Section 5.1).

The series has helped to change ideas about the `canon' of texts that are central to the study of the ancient world and also available to readers at all levels — major works of Hellenistic poetry and Plutarch, for example, are now readily accessible, and in Latin, Lucan and Statius are examples of poets now easily available to students, whereas before they were either ignored or treated as marginal. Even major authors have enjoyed reappraisal through appearing in the series: e.g. Kenney's Lucretius 3 (second edition, 2014) put that poet firmly on the student map. The anthology format is used to allow readers to sample texts of great interest (and at a suitable level) which are often ignored through difficulty of access: e.g. Lucian (2008), Greek and Latin Letters (2003).

The series has also broken down the traditional division between `commentary' and `literary interpretation', both through the style of commentary and through the choice of works precisely for their literary interest and continuing significance, including their afterlife in western culture: recently published examples include Homer, Iliad 6; Sophocles, Antigone; Virgil, Aeneid 12 and Horace, Satires 1. The principal stated aim of the series is, `to provide the guidance that the reader needs for the interpretation and understanding of the book as a work of literature'. Readers come to see that linguistic and literary interpretation are intimately inter-related.

Public recognition of the value and innovativeness of the series ranges from a celebratory rap video on YouTube (5.2) to remarks by Professor Denis Feeney (Princeton) in Times Literary Supplement for 15 February, 2013, reviewing Horace, Satires 1 (Gowers — submitted in REF2) and Virgil, Aeneid 12 (Tarrant), which he describes as `outstanding commentaries ... remarkable standards of scholarship and criticism ... Cambridge University Press's splendid Greek and Latin Classics series, known in the trade as the "Green and Yellows", is now in its fifth decade ... Publications such as this are real events in the world of Classics, because their appearance will immediately result in the texts they discuss being put on curricula and reading lists. Texts suddenly come in from the cold when they have this sort of passport, and take their places in undergraduate classes and graduate seminars'. Already in 1995, Professor Jasper Griffin (Oxford) had noted in TLS for April 14 that `the commentaries [in this series] are one of the success stories of the subject' (5.3).

The value of the series is warmly acknowledged by teachers in schools, colleges, and Universities.

a) overseas Universities

A Professor at Berkeley writes: `In my own teaching of undergraduate Greek courses, the availability of a Green and Yellow is an important consideration in what I decide to read in the course.' (5.4) A Professor at Princeton has commented on the way in which: `the expansion of the series with such volumes as "Greek and Latin Letters", which has made it feasible (and affordable!) to teach new courses on subjects like ancient epistolography and social history to undergraduates. I do not know any other series with the wherewithal to support the Classics curriculum in this way' (5.5). The dominance of the Green and Yellows in U.S. Classics Majors' lives is indicated by an image provided by Brown University (5.9).

b) UK Universities

A Professor in the UK (University of Reading, but remarking of her experience teaching at the University of Exeter) writes: `I have been using Donna Hurley's Green and Yellow of Suetonius' Divus Claudius this past term, and I just want to say that that is one TERRIFIC commentary, one of the very best I've ever used in terms of answering the questions that students actually have while also being useful to the teacher. My Latin students have done significantly better this year than last year ...' (5.6).

Schools in UK

In secondary schools in the UK, in both independent and maintained sectors, the Green and Yellows have become the mainstay of teacher support:

A teacher at an independent school notes: `I always use a Green and Yellow if there is one: I think they are getting better and better. OT is the A level play at the moment [there is a CGLC edition], and I'm using the editions of Philoctetes and Phaedo for Pre-U this year. I use them to prepare teaching GCSE set texts as well' (5.7). A teacher at a state school writes: `I use the Green and Yellows for my A level teaching. I've just been looking at Cicero's Philippics I-II, which I happened to have at hand, and what I really like about the commentary is the balance between clarification of obscure grammatical constructions, stylistic comments (which by the way avoid the more obscure terminology) and sufficient background to give the text a wider meaning' (5.8).

Sources to corroborate the impact

5.1. e-mail from the Editorial Department, Cambridge University Press.

5.2. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gG0bIFmCPH0

5.3. Feeney, Times Literary Supplement 15/2/2013; Griffin, Times Literary Supplement 14/4/1995

5.4. e-mail from person 1 (Professor, Berkeley), 23 November 2012

5.5. e-mail from person 2 (Professor, Princeton), 27 November 2012

5.6. e-mail from person 3 (Professor, Reading), 24 May 2013

5.7. e-mail from person 4 (Teacher, independent school), 10 November 2012

5.8. e-mail from person 5 (Teacher, state school), 19 September 2013

5.9. Photo of undergraduate at Brown University winning costume prize for dressing as a `Green and Yellow', 2012