The teaching of Greek and Latin classical authors is often presented as an effective antidote to the barbarism of our times. But is this really the case? What place does classical antiquity hold today, and by whom is its study most threatened?

These complex questions are tackled here by historian Giusto Traina, highlighting aspects and examples of uses and abuses of antiquity in the 20th and 21st centuries: from the brutal ideological exploitation of ancient Greek culture and Roman heritage by the Nazis and Fascists, to more recent cases invoking the Classics to demonstrate the supposed superiority of the West or to interpret the complex realities of our time (migration, pandemic, geopolitical conflicts).

The author proposes here a "black book" of the reception of antiquity, helping us understand which elements are still alive and which are dead in our relationship with it.