The project aims to compile a biography of Vilhelm Lundström (1869-1940), the first professor of Latin at the University of Gothenburg, and his relationship to and research on Italy and ancient Rome. He was not only a classical philologist, but also active as a politician for the right and as a newspaperman, both writer and editor, and founded several associations and journals. Almost every year from the 1890s until the First World War, he travelled for research and study purposes to Italy, the country that for the romantically influenced Lundström symbolized "the home of all longing" - only there could the northerner realize his true self and reconnect with his classical origins. The philological-archaeological college course Lundström completed in Rome in 1909 ultimately led to the founding of the Swedish Institute in Rome in the 1920s, and he was a keen debater of the importance of classical studies for the modern age. The crisis that both the humanities and the classical languages are experiencing today makes a biographical project on Vilhelm Lundström both urgent and relevant for continued reflection on how we use and manage the classical heritage in education and research in Sweden.