David Butterfield

speaker

739 appearances 1 recordings 1 series first heard May 2026 last heard 20 May

David Butterfield’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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TRIGGERnometry · How Civilisations Die - Ancient Greece Expert David Butterfield · 20 May 2026 podcast

So long story short, I became a lecturer at Cambridge.

I stayed there for 20 years.

And although I had a job which employed me until retirement, which would have been somewhere in the 2050s,

I decided for a series of reasons, mostly linked to the decline I was seeing in that great university and in higher education more broadly, I decided to resign and to tie myself to a new college that was seeking to teach the humanities, starting with ancient Greek,

in a way that went back to first principles and did things properly that's ralston college that's how i met you two in the flesh in greece last summer and now i'm professor of latin and provost of ralston and very much enjoying my life well it's great and look there's a lot to unpack and what you've said we'll probably come to that later because we want to talk about the history um

Actually, when we were in Greece and you were basically showing us around, showing us the history, but also explaining the history of ancient Greece, I think I remember by day three, you said, you know what, I had a bit of a nightmare that you were still asking me questions during the night.

Because Francis and I were both so curious and interested in what you had to say.

So let's get into it.

A lot of people talk about the history of our civilization being rooted in Athens and in Rome.

And if we talk about the Athens portion of that,

Before we even get to that, David, I've always wanted to ask someone with your knowledge and expertise this question.

What is civilization?

It's a big question.

It's not a simple matter.

And indeed, it's a controversial question, but I think unduly controversial.

Civilization is a useful word, and it's one we should use.

But what is and what is not civilization?

the best we can do is to point to certain things which seem to be necessary to a civilization and see how far that takes us.

So to be a civilization, a group of people need to have stability.

That means geographical stability.

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