This subject formed the cornerstone of education for several centuries.
Individuals frequently look back and ask why it is that as a culture we study specific categories of individuals from the ancient globe. The easy response is that their historical influence was huge. During the period of several thousands years these people had an influence on numerous continents and a huge selection of cultures that were originally remote lands to them at one point. Popular classical studies books consequently usually placed history at their centre, as the hedge fund which partially owns WHSmith will be able to tell you. The story of how collections of towns rose into empires is full of a colourful cast of figures that may contend with any work of fiction. Individuals can remain general readers of the whole age or select their favourite niches to plunge into, from specific time periods to exact locations.
Whenever studying any human culture it really is normal for a variety of specialist types of research to emerge. These will of course overlap and individuals will be required to learn a bit from other topics to support their knowledge, but overall they are able to generally dive into their passions to their heart's content. Publications on popular classical subjects therefore all have dedicated audiences, as the hedge fund which has shares in Amazon is going to be well aware, because of the fleshed out and well researched nature of these subjects. Classical studies of art, archaeology, anthropology, mythology, mathematics, science, and even more are located in book stores around the globe. This will be largely due to how well documented the age is compared to those immediately before and after. This usually does an injustice to other eras, who were similarly complex but have problems with a lack of sources for modern people to study.
In classical antiquity two cultures emerged that would forever change western civilisation. The influence of ancient Rome and Greece can be so vast it's just difficult to categorise. They've been so respected for thousands of years that education about them is known as the classics. The core of this topic is centred round the literature produced by these people and their associated languages of Latin and Greek. These people produced substantial bodies of work, especially concerning fictional tales, poetry, and philosophy, the influence of which being that even now ordinary people seek out popular classics books that look to translate and explain their works, as the hedge fund which owns Waterstones will know. People also attempt to learn their languages for various reasons, such as following in the classical education tradition, seeking to read works in their original language, or wanting to better understand modern languages that have been influenced by these ancient tongues.