M.A. in Classics
Available here, in addition to a statement of degree requirements, is the reading list for the degree and a supplementary reading list for historical background.
Requirements
The M.A. in Classics requires ten courses (30 credits) in Greek and Latin at the graduate level, completion of an independent reading list, demonstration of proficiency in a modern foreign language, usually French or German, and comprehensive written and oral examinations.
Course Work
Six - advanced language courses a year are normally available to graduate students. Additional courses may be available through the Boston-area consortium and (with departmental permission) classical civilization courses may be taken at BC. Students are encouraged to develop a seminar paper into a conference paper for presentation.
Modern Language
Proficiency is demonstrated by a one-hour translation test in which the use of a dictionary is allowed. This test does not form part of the comprehensive exams. It should be taken at a student's earliest convenience, the sooner the better.
Exams
These include written translation exams in Greek and Latin, a two-hour written essay exam in Greek literature, a two-hour written essay exam in Latin literature, and a one-hour oral exam.
Each written translation exam, one for Greek and one for Latin, requires the translation of three (out of four) passages. The translation exams are based on the reading list; use of a dictionary is not allowed.
The comprehensive exams, one on the Greek side and one on the Roman side, offer four essay topics of which the student will choose three. These essays are an opportunity to demonstrate knowledge of the ancient world by drawing on different authors, genres, and other kinds of evidence to comment on larger thematic issues in the ancient world.
The oral exam is open-ended, testing whether a student can engage in an hour long conversation about classical literature, its historical contexts, and its place in the modern world. A supplementary reading list suggests books on political, social, and literary history to help prepare.
Summary of Requirements
- 30 credits of coursework
- Proficiency test (with a dictionary) in a modern foreign language
- Written translation exams in the ancient languages
- Two-hour written essay examination on Greek literature
- Two-hour written essay examination on Latin literature
- One-hour oral examination
Reading List
The reading list lays out the works we expect students to gain familiarity with in the course of their studies. Some of these works will be the focus of our courses while others should be the object of individual and group study. For print purposes see Reading List in pdf format.
Readings in Greek
- Homer: Iliad 1, 9, 16, 22, 24; Odyssey 9–12
- Hesiod: Theogony
- Homeric Hymns: 5 (To Aphrodite)
- Greek Lyric:
- Archilochus frr. 6, 7, 60, Cologne Fragment
- Sappho frr. 1, 16, 31
- Tyrtaeus fr. 9
- Solon frr. 1, 19
- Pindar: Olympian 1
- Aeschylus: Agamemnon
- Sophocles: Oedipus Rex
- Euripides: Medea
- Aristophanes: Clouds
- Herodotus: Histories 1
- Thucydides: Selections in B. Nagy, Thucydides Reader
- Gorgias: 11 (Helen)
- Plato: Apology
- Lysias: 1 (On the Murder of Eratosthenes)
- Apollonius of Rhodes: Argonautica 3
- Theocritus: Idylls 11 (Polyphemus to Galatea)
- Lucian: Alexander the False Prophet
- Plutarch: Alexander
Readings in Latin
- Plautus: Pseudolus
- Terence: Adelphoe
- Catullus: All
- Lucretius: De Rerum Natura 1.1-482, 3
- Cicero: In Catilinam 1, Stockton’s Thirty-Five Letters
- Caesar: Civil War 1
- Sallust: Bellum Catilinae
- Vergil: Eclogues 1; Aeneid 1, 2, 4, 6, 12
- Horace: Odes 1; Satires 1
- Tibullus: Elegies 1
- Propertius: Elegies 1
- Ovid: Amores 1; Metamorphoses 1
- Livy: Ab Urbe Condita 1
- Augustus: Res Gestae
- Tacitus: Annales 14
- Pliny: Epistles 6.16, 20; 10.96, 97
- Juvenal: Satires 1, 3
- Apuleius: Metamorphoses 4.28–6.24 (Cupid and Psyche)
Supplementary Reading List
As general background to the study of classical antiquity, we strongly recommend that you read some basic works on the political and social history of Greece and Rome, especially if you have never taken a course on those subjects. The books below are recent classics that we like, but there are many available; feel free to make substitutions.
For Greece
- Robin Osborne, Greece in the Making, 1200-479 BC
- Simon Hornblower, The Greek World, 479-323 BC
- Loren J. Samons, ed. Cambridge Companion to the Age of Pericles
- Greek social history: e.g. J.N. Davidson, Courtesans & Fishcakes: The Consuming Passions of Classical Athens
For Rome
- Harriet Flower, Roman Republics
- Colin Wells, The Roman Empire
- Ronald Syme, The Roman Revolution
- Roman social history: e.g. Robert Knapp, Invisible Romans; Potter & Mattingly, Life, Death, and Entertainment in the Roman Empire (esp. good on religion, demography, & spectacles); Michael Peachin, ed. The Oxford Handbook of Roman Social Relations; T. Wiseman, Catullus and His World
For literary history
- Gian Biagio Conte, Latin Literature: A History
- Tim Whitmarsh, Ancient Greek Literature