Resume

Frank Amati has been involved in teaching for almost 40 years. He graduated with Double Hons. in Classics from the University of QLD, after which he worked for a few years as tutor in Latin and research assistant for Dr. John Whitehorne in classifying papyrological letters written in Ancient Greek to the Roman governor of Egypt in the 1st Century CE. Moving to Sydney, after a spell with the NSW public service, Frank began in 1983 to teach Classical Greek and Latin up to HSC at Cranbrook School, and then continued in 1988 as coordinator of Classics at St. Ignatius College, Riverview. In the meantime, he completed an M.A. (Hons.) in Ancient Greek, concentrating on the work of the Pre-Socratic philosophers. Taking a break from school teaching, Frank embarked on a course on Communication and Counselling at the Australian School of Psychology, affiliated to the University of Western Sydney. This allowed him to teach Communications at the Ultimo TAFE, where he also taught evening classes in Italian.

He was offered a job at Sydney Grammar School in 1999, resuming his HSC teaching in Classical Greek, Latin and Historiography in Extension History. At Sydney Grammar he was also able to teach Sanskrit, a language he had initially studied at QLD University and had taken up again in the early 90’s. He retired from teaching in 2017. Frank’s interests are broad. He is particularly interested in Ancient Greek philosophy and the history of drama. This also includes research into the historical evidence of Latin tragedy up to the extant tragedies of Seneca. He is fascinated with Roman Love Elegy and modern historiographical concepts as applied to the Roman historian Tacitus in particular. Interest extends to the Sanskrit language as an Indo-European language. His interests lie in the great Indian epics and the classical and spiritual texts of yogic practice. The Sanskrit texts of Buddhism are also an interest.