John Quincy Adams and the Ancient Classics, 1794–1817

ABSTRACT:John Quincy Adams was, among other things, a scholar, poet, and even scientist. He was unusually devoted to the Greek and Latin classics. This article establishes, through his detailed diaries, the agenda of his classical studies from 1794 to 1817, a period during which, with the exception of eight years back in the United States, he served as an ambassador in Europe. His non-classical intellectual interests during this whole period are included in the story, for Adams’s classical interests were only part—but an important part—of an encyclopedic openness to the whole of learning, which was not untypical of his age.