Department of Classics
Ph.D. Suggested Reading List - Primary Sources
(Updated 7/18/05)
The Ph.D. suggested reading list is designed to serve as a model for Ph.D. candidates preparing for the preliminary examination in Greek and Latin literature. Many candidates, however, will wish to emphasize a particular period or author in accordance with their own interest; while preserving the essential range and bulk of the list, they may use it as a guide to compile their own reading list in consultation with the examining instructor.
Primary Sources - Latin
- Apuleius "Cupid and Psyche"
- Caesar Bellum Gallicum I, Bellum Civile III
- Catullus All
- Cicero Orations: Pro Caelio, Cat. I, Phil. II. 6; Philosophical & Rhetorical: De Oratore I, Somnium Scipionis, Cato Maior. Letters: Stockton's selection
- Claudian De Raptu I
- Ennius Annales
- Horace Odes; Satires I.1, 4, 5, 6, 9; II.6; Epistles I.1, 7, 19; Ars Poetica
- Juvenal 1,3,6,10
- Livy Praef., I, XXI, XXII
- Lucan II
- Lucretius I, III, V
- Martial XI
- Ovid Amores II; Heroides XVI-XXI; Ars Amatoria I; Metamorphoses I, VIII
- Petronius Cena Trimalchionis
- Plautus Pseudolus and Rudens
- Pliny Half of Sherwin-White's selection
- Propertius I, IV
- Quintilian X
- Sallust Catiline or Jugurtha
- Seneca Thyestes; Medea; Summers' selection of Letters
- Statius Silvae IV
- Suetonius Augustus
- Tacitus Annales I-VI or XI-XVI; Agricola; Histories I; Dialogus
- Terence Adelphoe or Eunuchus
- Tibullus I
- Vergil All
Primary Sources - Greek
- Aeschines Against Timarchus
- Aeschylus Oresteia
- Apollonius III
- Aristophanes Clouds, Frogs, Lysistrata
- Aristotle Poetics
- Bacchylides 5,17
- Callimachus Hopkinson's selection
- Demosthenes Against Meidias and Against Conon
- Euripides Bacchae, Hippolytus, Medea, Heracles
- Greek Anthology Hopkinson's selection
- Herodotus I, and two other books
- Hesiod Theogony or Works and Days
- Homer All
- Homeric Hymns One of: Hermes, Aphrodite, Demeter, Delian Apollo
- Isocrates Antidosis
- Lucian Verae Historiae and Dialogues of the Courtesans
- Lyric Poetry Campbell's selection
- Lysias Against Eratosthenes
- Menander Dyscolus
- Pindar Olympian 1, 2,10, 14; Pythian 1, 4; Nemean 7, 8, 10; Isthmian 7, 8
- Plato Phaedo, Symposium, Phaedrus, Apology, Ion, Republic IV, X.613-end
- Polybius VI. 1-42, 51-57
- Sophocles Antigone, OT, Philoctetes
- Theocritus 1, 2, 7, 11, 13
- Thucydides I, II. 34-65, VI, VII
- Xenophon Memorabilia I, Anabasis II-III.9