PhD Reading Lists and Exam Format

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

The Common Lists

Go to Format of Exams

Effective as of Spring 2008

1. Greek

Homer: Iliad 1, 6, 9, 16-24; Odyssey 6-13, 16-17, 19, 23
Homeric Hymns: To Demeter, To Aphrodite
Hesiod: Theogony 1-210, 453-616; Works and Days 1-380
Pindar: Olympian 1, 7; Pythian 1, 10, 11; Nemean 5; Isthmian 6
Archaic Lyric: As in Campbell, Greek Lyric Poetry (Revised ed., 2002, including appendix)
Aeschylus: Oresteia
Sophocles: Oedipus Tyrannus, Antigone, Philoctetes
Euripides: Medea, Hippolytus, Bacchae
Aristophanes: Clouds, Lysistrata, Frogs,
Herodotus: I, III.27-66, 76-138, VII
Thucydides: I, II.1-24, 34-65, III.36-68, 81-85, V.84-116, VI.15-19, 26-32, VII.46-50, 69-87, VIII.1-2, 64-77, 81-82, 86-97
Lysias: Against Eratosthenes, On the Murder of Eratosthenes
Plato: Gorgias, Symposium, Republic 5
Isocrates: Helen, Panegyricus
Xenophon: Hiero, Spartan Constitution, Hellenica 2
Demosthenes: De Corona
Ps.-Demosthenes [=Apollodorus]: Against Neaera
Aeschines: Against Ctesiphon
Aristotle: Ethica Nicomachea I.1-5, 7-13, II, III. 1-5, Rhetoric I, Poetics
Menander: Dyscolus
Apollonius Rhodius: Book III
Callimachus: Hymns 2, 5, 6; Aetia fr. 1-2, Iambus 1
Theocritus: 1-3, 7, 11, 13, 15
Hero(n)das: 1, 6
Polybius: VI
Plutarch: Moralia 1-17 (On the Education of Children), Life of Theseus, Life of Antony
New Testament: Gospel according to John, First Epistle to the Corinthians, Epistle to the Hebrews
Lucian: The Death of Peregrinus, True History
Longus: Daphnis and Chloe I
Epigrams: As in Hopkinson, A Hellenistic Anthology (1988), pp.68-79
Heliodorus: I
Late Greek epic: Musaeus, Hero and Leander

2. Latin

Ennius: Annales
Plautus: Miles, Menaechmi
Terence: Eunuchus
Lucretius: 1.1-482, 921-950; 2.1-380; 3; 4.1037-1287; 5.783-1457; 6.1138-1286
Catullus: Carmina
Caesar: De bello civili I
Sallust: Catilina
Cicero: Pro Caelio, Philippics 2, Brutus, Selected Letters (Shackleton Bailey), De officiis 3
Vergil: Eclogues; Georgics 1; 2.1-176, 458-542; 3.1-48; 4; Aeneid 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 9, 12.791-952
Horace: Odes, Satires 1,Satires 2.6-8, Epistles I
Tibullus: I
Propertius: 1,3.1-5, 4
Augustus: Res Gestae
Ovid: Amores I, Met. 1, 6, 13.623-14.157, 15.745-879, Tristia 1
Livy: 1, 5, 21, 22
Seneca Major: Contr. 2.2, Suas. 6
Seneca Junior: Thyestes, De Ira 1, Epist. Mor. 1-12, 77, 88
Lucan: 7
Petronius: Cena Trimalchionis
Statius: Thebaid 1, Silvae 2.2, 2.7, 4.3
Martial: Epigrams 1
Quintilian: 10.1
Pliny Junior: 50 Letters (Sherwin-White)
Tacitus: Annals 1, 4; Histories 1, Dialogus
Juvenal: 1, 3, 10
Suetonius: Augustus
Apuleius: Met. 1.1-20 and "Cupid and Psyche" (Kenney)
Gellius: Noctes Atticae 3.1-6
Claudian: De raptu Proserpinae, Praef. and Book 1
Jerome: Letter 14
Augustine: Confessions 1

Format of Examinations

Go to Common List

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. These passages will be drawn from the Common List.

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