Courses
Courses are organized under three main headings:
Elementary and Intermediate Greek and Latin
Elementary and intermediate language courses are designed to prepare students for advanced courses in Greek and Latin literature. They also carry credit towards the University Foreign Language requirement. Each of these courses is offered once a year.
Ancient Culture and Civilization Courses
Open as electives to all students and are conducted entirely in English translation. They can be applied to, and form the basis of, the Minor in Ancient Civilization. Some count towards University Core requirements and are marked as such. A selection of these courses is offered each year, usually four to six.
Advanced Language Courses
Reading courses in Greek and Latin Literature are designed for Classics' majors and graduate students, but are open to anyone who possesses the necessary language background. (Usually completion of our Intermediate sequence, a 4 or 5 on the AP Latin exam, or at least a 600 on the SAT II.) Six are offered each year, usually four Latin, two Greek.
Students should note that courses in other departments, which may not be listed here, will sometimes carry credit towards the Minor in Ancient Civilization.
Note: Visit the Boston College Course Schedule Information site for complete and up-to-date course listings, including links to course descriptions, instructor information, and indications of which courses are open, closed, or restricted. Only a selection of these courses is offered in any given term.
Classics Courses
- Elementary Greek I-II
- Intermediate Greek I–II
- Elementary Latin I–II
- Intermediate Latin I–II
- Advanced Intermediate Latin (fall only)
- Classical Mythology
- Greek Civilization
- Greek History (History Core)
- Art and Archaeology of Homer and Troy
- Art and Myth in Ancient Greece (Fine Arts Core)
- Culture of Athenian Democracy
- Drama and Society in Ancient Greece
- Greeks and Barbarians
- Death and Dying in Ancient Greece (Enduring Questions Core)
- Dangerous Women in Classical Literature
- The City of Rome
- Roman History (History Core)
- Roman Spectacles
- Roman Religion
- Roman Law and Family
- Ancient Medicine
- Gender and Sexuality in Ancient Rome
- Multiculturalism in the Roman Empire
- Roman Comedy
- Rome: Art, Regime, and Resistance (Enduring Questions Core)
- Beast Literature (Literature Core)
- The Chorus: Ancient and Modern (Arts Core)
- Greco-Roman Egypt
- Everyday Aphrodite: Classics and the History of Sexuality
- Homer
- Aphrodite
- Herodotus
- Thucydides
- Sophocles
- Euripides
- Greek Rhetoric
- Plautus and Terence
- Lucretius
- Catullus
- Cicero and Sallust: Catiline
- Cicero's Political Thought
- Roman Civil War Literature
- Livy
- Roman Elegy
- Latin Pastoral Poetry: Vergil and Tibullus
- Vergil's Aeneid
- Ovid's Fasti
- Tacitus
- Apuleius' Golden Ass
Additional Ancient Language Study Opportunities in MCAS and the STM
Boston College offers coursework and hosts reading groups in the languages of the Bible, Church Fathers (Patristic Texts), ancient Greece and Rome both for graduate and undergraduate students.