PhD Reading Lists and Exam Format

Classics MA Requirements | Classics PhD Requirements | Classics Advising and Reviews | Appeals Procedures

The Common Lists

Go to Individual List rules | Format of Exams

(Effective as of Fall 1998)

1. Greek

Homer: Iliad 1, 6, 9, 16-24; Odyssey 6-13, 16-17, 19, 23
Pindar: Olympian 1, 7; Pythian 1, 10, 11; Nemean 5; Isthmian 6
Aeschylus: Oresteia
Sophocles: Antigone, Philoctetes
Euripides: Hippolytus, Bacchae
Aristophanes: Frogs, Clouds
Herodotus: Books I and VII
Thucydides: Books I-III
Lysias: Against Eratosthenes
Andocides: On the Mysteries
Plato: Gorgias, Republic I
Demosthenes: Orationes 1-4 [3 Olynthiacs, one Philippic]
Aristotle: Ethica Nicomachea I-II, Metaphysics A
Menander: Dyscolus
Apollonius Rhodius: Book III
Callimachus: Hymns 5, 6; frr. 1-2
Theocritus: 1-3, 7, 11, 13, 15
Plutarch: Life of Theseus
Longus: Daphnis and Chloe I

2. Latin

Ennius: Annales
Plautus: Miles, Rudens
Terence: Adelphoe
Catullus: Carmina
Lucretius: De rerum natura 1, 3
Caesar: De bello civili I
Sallust: Catilina
Cicero: Pro Caelio, Philippics II, Brutus, Tusc. Disp. V, Epist. ad Atticum I
Vergil: Eclogues; Georgics 1, 4; Aeneid 1, 4, 6-8, 12
Horace: Odes, Satires I, Epistles I
Tibullus: Book I
Propertius: Books I and III.1-5
Ovid: Amores I, Metamorphoses 1, 8
Livy: Books I, V, XXI, XXII
Seneca: Thyestes, De Ira I, Epistulae Morales 1-12, 88
Lucan: Book 7
Petronius: Cena Trimalchionis
Pliny: Epistulae II and VI.1-20
Quintilian: Book X.1
Tacitus: Annales I, XIII-XV
Juvenal: 1, 3, 10
Suetonius: Tiberius
Apuleius: Metamorphoses I

The Individual Lists

Go to Common List | Format of Exams

Each candidate for the Ph.D. examinations will draw up an individual list of texts in each language, additional to the Common Lists. The individual list in each language:

a) is to total not less than 850 pages of Oxford Text (or equivalent),

b) must include at least 300 pages of verse texts and at least 300 pages of prose texts,

c) must cover at least six different authors.

The individual lists must be presented to, and approved by, the Graduate Advisor and the Ph.D. Committee Chair not later than the end of the semester preceding that in which the examinations are to be taken.

Format of Examinations

Go to Common List | Individual List rules

The examinations will have the following format:

1) Unseens: two passages, one each of prose and verse. The prose passage will be the equivalent of one Oxford Text page of 30-34 full lines in length, and the verse passage 30-35 lines in length.

2) Prescribed texts: six passages (or their equivalent), evenly divided between prose and verse, of approximately two-thirds of an Oxford Text page (i.e. 20-25 full lines) in length, or approximately 20 lines of verse. Four passages will be drawn from the Common List, two from the Individual List.

Classics MA Requirements | Classics PhD Requirements | Classics Advising and Reviews | Appeals Procedures