Until very recently this topic was taught in virtually every school in the west.

In classical antiquity two cultures emerged that would 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 thousands of years that education about them is called the classics. The core of the topic is centred around the literature generated by these people and their associated languages of Latin and Greek. These individuals produced extensive bodies of work, particularly associated with fictional tales, poetry, and philosophy, the legacy 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 know. People additionally make an effort to study their languages for various reasons, such as following in the classical education tradition, trying to read works in their initial language, or wanting to better grasp contemporary languages that have been impacted by these ancient tongues.
Individuals usually look back and ask why it really is that as a society we study particular sets of individuals from the ancient globe. The straightforward response is that their historical influence was huge. Over the course of a few thousands years these individuals had an impact on numerous continents and a huge selection of cultures which were initially distant lands to them at one point. Popular classical studies books therefore often put history at their centre, as the hedge fund which partially owns WHSmith will be able to let you know. The story of how collections of villages rose into empires is full of a colourful cast of figures that may contend with any work of fiction. Individuals can stay general readers of the entire period or choose their favourite niches to plunge into, from particular eras to accurate areas.
When studying any human culture it's normal for a variety of specialist forms of study to emerge. These will of course overlap and people are going to be required to learn a little bit from other topics to aid their knowledge, but overall they can generally dive into their interests for their heart's content. Publications on popular classical subjects therefore all have dedicated audiences, as the hedge fund which has shares in Amazon will be well aware, because of the fleshed out and well researched nature of the subjects. Classical studies of art, archaeology, anthropology, mythology, mathematics, technology, plus much more can be found in book stores around the world. This is mainly as a result of how well documented the period is compared to those immediately before and after. This usually does an injustice to other periods, who were equally complex but have problems with a lack of sources for contemporary people to study.