Graduate Reading Lists

The Master of Arts in Classical Studies, the Master of Arts in Classical Studies with Teaching Licensure, and the Master of Arts in Classical Archaeology endeavor to provide students with grounding in the texts of the classical world, their genres and their historical development. To that end, all graduate students in the Department of Classical Studies will be expected to master the following reading lists, containing material both in the original and in translation.

The ability to read Greek and Latin with relative facility is also a goal of these graduate degrees, as this skill facilitates research for philologists, historians, and archaeologists and supports the professional aspirations of classicists. All language examinations—both diagnostic and qualifying—will draw from the material in Latin and Greek on these lists.

Upon graduation from the programs, students should be able to perform the following tasks reliably and with reasonable alacrity in both languages:

  1. Identify the morphology of any declined or conjugated form;
  2. Explain the syntax of any declined or conjugated form;
  3. Scan dactylic hexameter;
  4. Accurately translate a continuous passage of either prose or poetry with the aid of a dictionary;
  5. Contextualize and interpret a passage within its genre and historical milieu.

  • In the Original
    Aristophanes Frogs
    Euripides Bacchae
    Herodotus Hist. 1.1-13, 1.29-33, 1.46-56, 1.79-89, 1.107-140, 1.141, 1.152-3, 1.204-216
    Homer Iliad 22
    Plato Apology
    Sophocles Ajax
    Cicero In Catilinam 1
    Horace Satires 1.5, 1.8, 1.9, 1.10, Odes 1.1, 1.3, 1.5, 1.9, 1.22, 1.37, 1.38
    Lucretius De Rerum Natura, 1.1-369; 2.216-224; 251-271; 3.1-30, 136-160; 4.1058-1169; 5.772-836; 6.1138-1286
    Livy Ab Urbe Condita Libri, 22.37-61
    Ovid Amores 1
    Vergil Aeneid 1
    In Translation
    Aristophanes Frogs, Clouds
    Euripides Medea, Bacchae
    Herodotus Histories, 1, 3.61-89, 4.42-45, 4.59-82, 4.118-142, 5.30-38, 5.49-54, 5.97-107,6.1-20, 6.42-43, 6.94-117, 7, 8.1-110, 9.122
    Homer Iliad and Odyssey
    Plato Apology, Symposium
    Sophocles Oedipus Tyrannus, Antigone, Ajax
    Thucydides History of the Peloponnesian War, 1.1-1.23, 1.56-1.88, 1.139-1.146; 2.34-2.65; 3.36-3.50, 3.69-3.85; 5.13-5.26, 5.84-5.116; 6.8-6.41; 7.1-7.18, 7.42-7.59, 7.72-7.87
    Cicero In Catilinam 1-4
    Horace Satires 1, Odes 1, Ars Poetica
    Lucretius De Rerum Natura, 1, 2, 3, 4 (1058-1287), 5 (772-1457), 6 (1-42; 1090-1286)
    Livy Ab Urbe Condita Libri, 1-5, 21-22, 30
    Ovid Metamorphoses
    Vergil Aeneid
  • In the Original
    Augustus Caesar Res Gestae
    Pliny the Elder Natural History 34.9-19; 35.5-9; 35.32-35
    Vitruvius De Architectura, Book 6
    Cato the Elder De Agri Cultura (selections from Courtney, Archaic Latin Prose [1999], Preface, 1-5, 141-143, 156-157)
    Frontinus De Aquae Ductu, Book 1
    Pausanias Description of Greece, 1.1-27
    Plutarch Life of Pericles
    Strabo Geographica, 2.3
    In Translation and Secondary Sources
    Pausanias Description of Greece
    Vitruvius De Architectura
    Strabo Geographica, 1, 2, 4, 5, 15, 17
    Pliny the Elder Historia Naturalis, Books 1-7, 26-27, 33-36
    Plutarch Life of Pericles
    Cato the Elder De Agri Cultura
    S. Alcock & R. Osborne Classical Archaeology, Second Edition, Wiley 2007.
    I. Morris Burial and Ancient Society The Rise of the Greek City-State (Cambridge, 1987)
    A. Wallace-Hadrill Rome's Cultural Revolution (Cambridge 2008)
    K. Green Archaeology of the Roman Economy (Berkeley 1986).
    D. Mattingly Imperialism, Power, and Identity (Princeton, 2013)
  • In the Original
    Herodotus 6.94-117, 7, 8.1-110
    Thucydides 1.1-23, 3.18-19, 3.27-50, 6.1, 6.6-31, 6.53-61, 6.88-93
    Xenophon Anabasis 1, 3.1.1-33, 4.7.19-27
    Caesar Bellum Gallicum 1
    Livy Ab Urbe Condita Libri 1
    Augustus Res Gestae
    In Translation
    Aristotle Ath. Pol.
    Herodotus Histories
    Old Oligarch  
    Plutarch Romulus/Theseus; Alexander/Caesar; Demosthenes/Cicero; Cimon; Pericles; On the Daimonion of Socrates
    Polybius  
    Thucydides History of the Peloponnesian War
    Xenophon Anabasis; Hellenica
    Ammianus Marcellinus 14. 6.2-27; 15.9-12; 17.7.1-8; 26.10.15-19; 28.6; 31.12-16.8
    Caesar Bellum Gallicum
    Livy Ab Urbe Condita Libri
    Tacitus Agricola; Annales
    Sallust Conspiratio Catilinae
    Suetonius Caesar, Augustus, Tiberius, Nero
  • In the Original
    Aeschylus Eumenides
    Christian Scripture John 1-3
    Hesiod Theogony; Works and Days
    Homer Odyssey 9
    Lucian True History, Book 1
    Lysias On the Murder of Erastosthenes
    Sappho 1, 16, 31 + the 2 new poems
    Thucydides Selections from narrative and speeches
    Apuleius Metamorphoses, 4.28.1-4.35; 5.26; 6.9-6.24
    Catullus Carmina, 1-16, 23, 29, 64, 68, 85, 86, 88, 93, 99, 101, 116
    Juvenal Satire 3
    Lucan Pharsalia, Book 1
    Petronius Satyricon, 12-15, 26-33, 41-49, 61-64, 71-78, 111-112
    Plautus Casina
    Pliny Letters, 1.1, 3.21, 5.9, 6.16, 6.20, 9.6, 10.96-97
    In Translation
    Aristotle Poetics
    Demosthenes On the Crown
    Longus Daphnis and Chloe
    Pindar Olympian Ode 1, Pythian Ode 10
    Plutarch On the Daimonion of Socrates
    Juvenal Satires
    Quintilian Institutio Oratoria, 10
    Seneca Medea, Thyestes, Apocolocyntosis
    Tacitus Annales
    Terence Heautontimorumenos, Andria
    Vergil Eclogues; Georgics
    Propertius Book 1
  • In the Original
    Aristotle Nicomachean Ethics VI
    Diogenes Laertius Life of Socrates
    Plato Republic X, Meno
    Sextus Empiricus Outlines of Pyrrhonism, Ch. XIV
    Hellenistic philosophy Selections
    Augustine Confessiones XI
    Boethius De consolatione philosophiae V
    Cicero De officiis, I
    Seneca De brevitate vitae
    In Translation - The above works in their entirety (unless otherwise noted) and:
    Aristotle Metaphysics I, XII, Politics I-III, VII-VIII
    Plato Protagoras, Gorgias, Crito
    Sextus Empiricus Outlines of Pyrrhonism
    Augustine De civitate Dei I.Pr., I.1, I.2, II.19, II.21, IV.4, V.9
    Cicero Academica, Tusculanae
    Seneca Epistulae morales ad Lucilium, I
    Lucretius De rerum natura
  • 8 MTEL authors
    Horace Satire 1.4; Ars Poetica; Odes 1.13; 1.19; 1.24; 2.14; 3.13; 3.30; 4.1; 4.11
    Catullus 1-15, 64
    Cicero Pro Caelio
    Vergil Aeneid 2, 4, 12.869-end; Eclogues 1; Georgics 4. 281-568.
    Livy Ab urbe condita, 1.1-16; 1.56.5-60.
    Caesar Bellum Gallicum, 7.69-90; Bellum Civile 3.84-99
    Pliny the younger 1.15, 6.16; 9.33; 5.19; 7.24; 9.16; 10.96-97.
    Ovid Metamorphoses, 1&2
    NON MTEL authors
    Apuleius Metamorphoses 4. 28-- 35; 5. 26; 6. 9- 24.
    Homer Odyssey 1.1-375; 10.275-574.
    In Translation
    Caesar The Civil Wars
    Plautus Menaechmi
    Terence Adelphoe
    Catullus entire
    Propertius Book 1
    Petronius entire
    Tacitus Annals 1-6
    Vergil Eclogues, Georgics
    Seneca Medea
    Aristophanes Lysistrata