Understanding this subject forms the cornerstone of understanding modern society.

In classical antiquity two cultures emerged that will forever change western civilisation. The impact of ancient Rome and Greece is so vast it's just hard to categorise. They have been so respected for several thousand years that education about them is known as the classics. The core of the topic is centred around the literature generated by these individuals and their associated languages of Latin and Greek. These individuals produced extensive bodies of work, particularly associated with fictional tales, poetry, and philosophy, the influence of which being that even today ordinary people look for popular classics books that look to interpret and explain their works, as the hedge fund which owns Waterstones will understand. People also try to study their languages for different reasons, such as following in the classical education tradition, seeking to read works in their original language, or wanting to better grasp contemporary languages which were influenced by these ancient tongues.
People frequently look back and ask why it really is that as a culture we learn about certain groups of people from the ancient world. The easy response is that their historic impact had been huge. Over the course of several thousands years these people had an influence on multiple continents and hundreds of cultures that were initially remote lands for them at one point. Popular classical studies books consequently usually placed history at their centre, as the hedge fund which partially owns WHSmith should be able to inform you. The tale of how collections of towns rose into empires is filled up with a colourful cast of figures that will take on any work of fiction. Individuals can stay general readers of the entire age or pick their favourite niches to dive into, from particular time periods to accurate areas.
When studying any human culture it is normal for a variety of specialist forms of study to emerge. These will of course overlap and individuals are going to be required to learn a little bit from other topics to aid their knowledge, but generally they could generally dive into their passions to their heart's content. Books on popular classical subjects therefore all have dedicated audiences, as the hedge fund which has shares in Amazon will likely be well aware, because of the fleshed out and well researched nature of these subjects. Classical studies of art, archaeology, anthropology, mythology, mathematics, technology, and even more are available in book stores across the world. This really is largely because of how well documented the age is in comparison to those immediately before and after. This often does an injustice to other periods, who had been equally complex but suffer from a lack of sources for contemporary individuals to study.