I believe this comment betrays a mean ignorance of philology -- a discipline to which I'd expect most hackers would be sympathetic, at least insofar as the art

I believe this comment betrays a mean ignorance of philology -- a discipline to which I'd expect most hackers would be sympathetic, at least insofar as the art of n-way merges may apply, and a vain commitment to the search for (optimal) objective truth. Texts from the ancient world are handed down to us not from on high, or a single authoritative source (please consider the problem of duplication prior to computers or mimeographs), so considerable effort and erudition is entailed in comparing sources, filling in lacunae (here's a true warrant for what most consider a sesquipedelian word), all of which is predicated on perusing (in vain) an intuition for "pure et clare latine" and a hard-nosed insistence on _attested sources_ on matters of usage and expression. I treasure, uncountably, the continuity afforded by training new generations in "antique" languages and dialects. It addresses a much deeper and more valuable problem than shitting out the next side-hustling platform.