Classicist receives award for best performance at Oxford

The examinations cover material from the first five terms of the undergraduate Classics degree course, including authors such as Homer, Tacitus and Plato, and consist of ten papers.

Fulcher describes receiving the Gibbs Prize as “a real pleasure and a great honour”. He also says: “I am deeply conscious that it was only made possible by the exceptional teaching and support of my tutors here at Oriel”. He has also been awarded the Hertford Prize for his performance in the Latin papers.

For Fulcher, studying Classics is personally rewarding. “The way in which the subject encourages you to adopt different modes of thinking strikes me”, he says, “as being especially valuable in a world of increasing specialisation and narrowed focuses,” adding: “Engaging with the literary productions of cultures that are at once so familiar and so alien is also quite tantalising.”

In April, Fulcher began part two of Oxford’s Classics degree — or “Greats,” for short. He says he is particularly looking forward to studying Aristotle and Roman philosopher Lucretius before he sits his final examinations in two years’ time.