Graduate Reading List for the Ph.D. in Classics, AOC Ancient Philosophy and/or Ancient Science
The following list of Ancient Greek and Roman authors is intended to help students prepare for the Preliminary Doctoral Examination and the following Comprehensive Ph.D. Examinations:
Greek and Latin Literature
Greek and Roman History
Special Topic: Classical Philosophy or Ancient Science
Some of the authors listed will also be read in the required course ‘Ancient Greek and Latin Seminar’. Given that students enter the Ph.D. program with a Master’s degree in hand, it is likely that they will already have read several of the authors listed upon entering the program. Each student, in consultation with his/ her advisor, will choose from the authors listed below and design an individual reading list that is tailored to his/ her plan of study, taking into account exam preparation and previous reading experience.
Latin Authors
Students should read at least 500 OCT pages, selected from the works listed below, in consultation with their advisor.
Apuleius Met. (Cupid and Psyche)
Augustine Confessions 1.6-20; 8.6-12
Boethius De Consolatione Philosophiae
Caesar Gallic War 1-4, Civil War 1
Catullus 1-51, 64, 76, 101
Cicero In Catilinam 1, Phillipic 2, De Re Publica (fragments as in Zetzel), De Officiis 1, De Oratore 1, Laelius, Tusculans 1, Select Letters (Shackleton Bailey’s Select Letters), De Finibus 1-3 & 5, Academica 1
Horace Odes 1,3 ; Epodes 1, 6; Satires 1.1, 6, 9; 2.2, 6; Letters 1.4, 6; 2.1
Juvenal 1, 3, 6, 10
Livy 1, 21
Lucan 1
Lucretius 1-3
Martial 1
Ovid Met. 1, 4; Fasti 1
Petronius Cena Trimalchionis 26-72
Plautus Amphitruo, Miles
Pliny the Younger Select Letters
Propertius 1
Seneca De Ira; De Beneficiis I-II; De Tranquillitate Animi ; Letters 51, 56, 79,
84, 86, 88, 114, 122
Tacitus Annales 1-4, Historiae 1, 5
Virgil Aeneid, Bucolics, Georgics 4
Ancient Greek Authors
Students should read at least 500 OCT pages, selected from the works listed below, in consultation with their advisor.
Aeschylus Oresteia (Agamemnon, Eumenides)
Apollonius Conic Sections
Archimedes The Method of Mechanical Theorems, On the Sphere and Cylinder
Aristophanes Clouds, Frogs
Aristotle Categories 1-5, De Interpretatione, Topics 1, Posterior Analytics (select passages), Metaphysics (select passages), Physics (select passages), De Anima, Generation of Animals 1,2; Generation and Corruption 2, Meteorology 1, 4; De Caelo 1, 2; Nicomachean Ethics (select passages)
Demosthenes Philippics 1
Diogenes Laertius 7, 10
Epicurus Letters to Herodotus & Menoeceus
Euclid Elements 1, 4; Optics, Phaenomena
Euripides Medea, Hippolytus, Bacchae
Galen On the Natural Faculties 1, On the Uses of the Parts 1, On the Sects for Beginners
Herodotus 1, 6, 7, 8
Hesiod Theogony 1-239
Homer Iliad, Odyssey
Lyric Poetry: Most texts in D. Campell (Greek Lyric Poetry 2nd ed.- skip Callinus, Phocylides, Demodocus, Pratinas, Timocreon, Praxilla, Carmina Popularioa, Scolia), newly found poems of Archilochus, Sappho, Simonides
Lysias Against Eratosthenes
Menander Dyskolos
Plato Apology, Crito, Euthyphro, Laches, Protagoras (select passages), Meno, Gorgias, Phaedo, Republic (select passages), Timaeus (select passages), Parmenides, Theaetetus (select passages), Sophist (select passages), Philebus, Laws 10
Plotinus Enneads 1.4, 4.8, 5.1
Plutarch Lives of Pericles, Cicero
Presocratics B fragments Anaximander, Anaximenes, Heraclitus, Parmenides, Zeno, Empedocles, Democritus, Anaxagoras
Ptolemy, Syntaxis 1, 10, Optics 5, Harmonics 1
Sextus Empiricus Outlines of Pyrrhonism 1
Sophocles Ajax, Antigone, Oedipus Rex
Theophrastus, De Causis Plantarum 1
Thucydides 1-2.70, 5.84-7
Xenophon Memorabilia 1, Hellenica 1