To mark its 30th anniversary this year, the Ancient History and Classics Department is launching a collection of essays called Celebratio.

      Printed by Broadview Press, the 180-page book will be launched April 25 at an Ontario Classical Association (oca) conference at Traill College.

      The volume includes 17 essays by current and former faculty and students on the classics, Greek and Roman studies, theatre at Trent and comparative literature. Included are essays by Desmond Conacher, who advised founding president Tom Symons about creating the department, and Bryan Reardon, first permanent department chair.

      Celebratio ends with a nine-page department history written and compiled by department chair Ian Storey and professor Janet Bews with help from professor David Page. Drawn from memories and records, it chronicles the evolution of a department whose birth lured classics scholar and University of Toronto professor emeritus Gilbert Bagnani out of retirement to teach for another decade. Bagnani bequeathed his Port Hope-area estate, Vogrie, to Trent.

      The book will be launched during the oca conference lunch after a morning panel, featuring professor Martin Boyne and three others, on strategies for teaching Latin and a lecture on the trials of Socrates by philosophy professor Chris Tindale. In the afternoon, delegates will discuss the state of classics in Ontario and hear a lecture by master's student Arlene Allan.