Philology Reading List

Reading List for PhD candidates in Classical Philology

These reading lists were adopted in December 2024 for students who enter the program in and after 2025, or students who entered in 2023 or 2024 and opt into the changes. (See the previous reading lists on this PDF: Greek and Latin reading lists prior to 2025.)

Greek

Must be read in Greek

  • Aeschylus: Agamemnon; Eumenides; Persians
  • Apollonius: Argonautica III
  • Archaic Lyric: selection as in Budelmann 2018 & Allan 2019
  • Aristophanes: Frogs; Lysistrata
  • Aristotle: Poetics
  • Bacchylides: 3, 5, 17
  • Callimachus: Aitia frr. 1, 54–60, 67–75, 110; Hymn 2
  • Demosthenes: Olynthiacs 1; Philippics 1
  • Dio Chrysostom: Euboicus
  • Epigrams: selection from Sens 2020
    • IV–VIII (Anyte); X–XI, XIII–XIV, XVII–XX (Asclepiades); XXI (Erinna); XXXVIII–XXXIX (Nossis); L–LIII, LVI, LIX–LX, LXIV, LXVII (Callimachus); LXXX–LXXXIII (Posidippus); LXXXVIII, XCII, XCVI (Theocritus); CXXVII–CXXXI (Antipater of Sidon); CXXXIV–CXL (Meleager)
  • Euripides: Bacchae; Medea
  • Gorgias: Helen
  • Herodotus: I 1–90, III 1–26, VIII 19–99
  • Hesiod: Theogony; Works and Days 1–382
  • Homer: Iliad 1, 6, 9, 18, 22, 24; Odyssey 1, 9, 10, 11, 12, 19, 23
  • Homeric Hymns: 2 (Demeter), 5 (Aphrodite)
  • Isocrates: Helen
  • Josephus: The Jewish War I prologue 1–6 (1–18), II 16.3–17.1 (342–407)
  • Longus: Daphnis and Chloe I
  • Lucian: Dream, True History I
  • Lysias: 1, 12
  • Menander: Samia
  • New Testament: Paul, Letter to the Romans
  • Pindar: Olympian 1, 7; Pythian 1, 4; Nemean 5
  • Plato: Apology; Republic I, VI 496a11–VII 518d7; Symposium
  • Plutarch: Life of Pericles
  • Sophocles: Antigone, Oedipus Tyrannus
  • Theocritus: Idylls 1, 7, 11, 13
  • Thucydides: I 1–23, II 34–65, V 26, 84–116, VI 8–23, VII 84–87, VIII 1
  • Xenophon: Oeconomicus 7–10

 

May be read in English

  • Aeschines: Against Timarchus; Against Ctesiphon
  • Aeschylus: Libation Bearers; Eumenides; Prometheus Bound; Seven Against Thebes; Suppliants
  • Apollodorus: Against Neaera
  • Apollonius: Argonautica I
  • Aristophanes: Acharnians; Birds; Clouds; Peace; Women at the Thesmophoria
  • Aristotle: Rhetoric; Politics
  • Basil of Caesarea: On Greek Literature
  • Demosthenes: On the Crown
  • Dionysius of Halicarnassus: The Ancient Orators; Thucydides
  • Euripides: Cyclops; Helen; Hippolytus; Iphigenia at Aulis; Orestes
  • Heliodorus: Aethiopica
  • Herodotus: Histories
  • Hippocratics: Airs, Waters, Places; Diseases of Young Girls
  • Homer: Iliad; Odyssey
  • Isocrates: Panegyric
  • Letters: Selection in Trapp 2003
  • Libanius: Autobiography
  • Longinus: On the Sublime
  • Lucian: True History; The Ignorant Book Collector; Herodotus; You’re a Literary Prometheus; How to Write History
  • Menander: Dyskolos
  • Nonnus: Dionysiaca VII–IX
  • Philostratus: Lives of the Sophists
  • Plato: Ion; Phaedrus; Protagoras; Gorgias; Republic (all)
  • Plutarch: Lives of Alcibiades-Coriolanus, Demosthenes-Cicero
  • Polybius: Histories I
  • Procopius: Wars I, Secret History (prologue, chs. 6–18)
  • Sophocles: Ajax; Electra; Oedipus at Colonus; Philoctetes; Women of Trachis
  • Synesius of Cyrene: On Providence or Egyptian Tale
  • Theocritus: Idylls 15, 22
  • Theophrastus: Characters
  • Thucydides: History
  • Xenophon: Apology; Hellenica; Memorabilia

 

Latin

Must be read in Latin

  • Apuleius: Metamorphoses I 1, VI 1–24
  • Augustine: Confessiones I 8 (13) – 20 (31) (edited by J. O’Donnell); De ciuitate dei III 23–31
  • Augustus: Res gestae (edited by A. Cooley)
  • Caesar: Bellum Gallicum I
  • Catullus: 1–60, 63, 64, 68, 70, 72, 76, 85, 95, 96, 101
  • Cicero: De officiis I 1–60; In Catilinam 1; Pro Archia; Pro Caelio; Philippics 2; Somnium Scipionis; Letters (as in Shackleton Bailey) 1, 4, 5, 9, 12, 15, 17, 19, 20, 24, 31, 34, 36, 39, 44, 64, 65, 71, 72, 75
  • Ennius: Annales 1–4, 8–11, 34–50, 72–103, 175–179, 183–190, 206–210, 363–365, 391–398 (edited by Skutsch)
  • Horace: Odes I–II; III 1–6, 30; Satires I 1, 4–5, 9; Epistles I 1, 7, 19–20; II 1
  • Juvenal: 1, 4, 10
  • Livy: Praefatio; I; XXI
  • Lucan: Bellum ciuile I 1–182, VII
  • Lucretius: De rerum natura I 1–158, V, VI 1138–1286
  • Martial: I
  • Ovid: Metamorphoses I, VIII, XIV, XV; Amores I; Heroides I, VII; Fasti III; Tristia I 1–3
  • Persius: Prologue, 1
  • Petronius: Satyricon 26.7–52
  • Plautus: Menaechmi
  • Pliny the Younger: Epistulae I 1; II; VI 16, 20; X 96, 97
  • Propertius: I; II 1, 34; III 1–5; IV 1A +B, 2, 7, 11 (Loeb edited by G. Goold)
  • Sallust: De coniuratione Catilinae
  • Seneca: Medea; Epistulae morales (selections in Edwards)
  • Statius: Siluae IV; Achilleis I
  • Sulpicia [Tibullus]: III 8–20
  • Tacitus: Dialogus 1–5.2, 28–42; Historiae I 1–49; Annales I 1–51, XV
  • Terence: Eunuchus
  • Tibullus: I 1, 4, 7
  • Virgil: Eclogues; Georgics I and IV; Aeneid I, III, IV, VI, VIII, IX, X, XII

 

May be read in English

  • Ammianus: Res Gestae XIV
  • Augustine: Confessiones; De ciuitate dei
  • Ausonius: Parentalia I–XII; Cento nuptialis
  • Apuleius: Metamorphoses I, IV 28 – V (Cupid and Psyche)
  • Boethius, De consolatione philosophiae I, III
  • Caesar: Bellum ciuile I
  • Cato: De agricultura
  • Catullus: all
  • Cicero: In Catilinam 1–4; Select letters (Walsh); Brutus; De oratore III; De Republica
  • Scriptores Historiae Augustae: Elagabalus
  • Horace: all
  • Juvenal: 2, 3, 5, 6, 8
  • Letters: Selection in Trapp 2003
  • Livy: Ab urbe condita V, IX, XXII, XXXVIII, XXXIX
  • Lucan: Bellum Ciuile all
  • Lucretius: De rerum natura all
  • Macrobius: Saturnalia VI
  • Martial: De Spectaculis; XIV (Apophoreta)
  • Nepos: Vita Hannibalis
  • Ovid: Metamorphoses; Ars Amatoria
  • Petronius: Satyricon
  • Plautus: Pseudolus; Amphitruo
  • Pliny the Elder: Naturalis Historia XXXV, XXXVI
  • Pliny: Panegyricus
  • Proba: Cento Vergilianus
  • Propertius: all
  • Quintilian: X.1
  • Sallust: Bellum Jugurthinum
  • Seneca the Elder: Controuersiae I Preface, II 2, X 5; Suasoriae 6 and 7
  • Seneca the Younger: Consolatio ad Helviam; De clementia
  • Statius: Siluae I–II; Thebais I
  • Silius Italicus: Punica I, VIII, XII
  • Suetonius: De uitis Caesarum
  • Tacitus: Agricola; Historiae I 50–90; Annales I–IV, XI, XIV–XVI
  • Terence: Adelphoe, Andria
  • Tibullus: all
  • Varro: De agricultura I; De lingua latina VII
  • Vitruvius: De architectura I
  • Virgil: all