Is it easier to learn a modern or ancient language first?

while walking through the catacombs in paris I met a girl who didnt know french but knew Latin very well... the catacombs have writing in old french which I had never learned but much of modern and old french is based on latin... this girl could figure out a language she haden't learned because french is a daughter language of latin.

Latin is the basis for all the romance languages and is still used to create new scientific words in current languages.

if you can master Latin; then learning other romance languages will be a matter of learning a new accent and a subset of grammar rules

For your major it makes sense that you learn Latin, if you were a Business major it would be completely different.

There are plenty of reading materials available in Latin, there are even modern books being printed in Latin and there are news websites written in Latin, see the links below.

You can even get all the Harry Potter books written in Latin.

You can always learn a modern language on your own, 30 minutes of daily study is enough to progress, and in 3-4 years you'll be relatively fluent. These days there are excellent self-learner material available to the dedicated student.

So I would stick to Latin studies and learn a modern language as a hobby, if you know Latin it will make your Ancient History major more valuable.

My advice is to stick with Latin. Although you may find Spanish or French easier to learn, you will find both even easier once you have had Latin. Although you won't "use [Latin] in life" the way you will a modern language, you'll find it very useful in other ways. In addition, as you said, it makes good sense to take Latin while you're also taking ancient history.

Acient coz it is interesting