Undergraduate

We offer courses at all levels, both in the original languages and in English, for majors and non-majors alike. We make no assumptions about a student's prior experience, and look to provide access to the ancient world to as many people as possible, in whatever form serves them best.

Course Offerings

Please note that courses in other departments, which may not be listed here, will sometimes carry credit towards the Minor in Ancient Civilization.

Language Study

For students wishing to begin language study, the department provides elementary and intermediate courses in Latin and Greek. These courses aim at preparing a student for more advanced study of ancient literature in the original languages. Elementary and intermediate courses in Modern Greek are also available. All these courses may be counted towards satisfying the University's undergraduate foreign language requirement.

Elementary and Intermediate Language Courses - Offered Annually
Elementary Greek I-II
Intermediate Greek I–II
Elementary Latin I–II
Intermediate Latin I–II
Advanced Intermediate Latin (fall only)

Please visit the EagleApps Course Information and Schedule site for up-to-date course descriptions, faculty, meeting times, and room assignments. Only a selection of these courses is offered in any given term.

Ancient Culture (no Greek or Latin required)

A number of courses are offered in the literature, history, and culture of the ancient world, taught through works in English translation rather than through works in the original languages. Some of these will satisfy the University's Core Curriculum requirement in Literature, Cultural Diversity, History I, or Fine Arts. All of them are available to Classics majors, and they form especially the basis of the major cultures track and the interdisciplinary minor in Ancient Civilization. But, they are designed above all to make antiquity accessible to the undergraduate population at large. They are the most wide-ranging of our courses.

Ancient Culture and Civilization - Selections Annually
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 (Cultural Diversity Core)
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

Please visit the EagleApps Course Information and Schedule site for up-to-date course descriptions, faculty, meeting times, and room assignments. Only a selection of these courses is offered in any given term.

Advanced Study in Latin and Greek

At the advanced level (3000 numbered), courses are offered on the major authors and genres of Greek and Roman literature. The emphasis here is on the close reading and appreciation of texts in the original ancient language. Typically these courses are taken by Classics language track majors and graduate students, but any student who has sufficient training in ancient Greek or Latin to keep up with the class is welcome (usually completion of our Intermediate sequence, a 4 or 5 on the AP Latin exam, or at least a 600 on the SAT II). 

Greek and Latin Literature Reading Courses - Selections Annually
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

Please visit the EagleApps Course Information and Schedule site for up-to-date course descriptions, faculty, meeting times, and room assignments. Only a selection of these courses is offered in any given term.

Core Courses

Many courses offered by the Classical Studies Department also satisfy University Core requirements in the Arts, Modern History, Cultural Diversity, and Literature/Enduring Questions.

Additional Ancient Language Study Opportunities

sappho fresco

The Morrissey College of Arts and Sciences and the School of Theology and Ministry offer coursework and host reading groups in the languages of the Bible, Church Fathers (Patristic Texts), ancient Greece and Rome both for graduate and undergraduate students. 

Questions?

Students and prospective students wishing to discuss how a course or a program might suit them should contact a faculty member for an appointment. Our FAQ page also addresses many common questions.

Professor Gail Hoffman
Professor Gail Hoffman
Department Chair

617-552-3661
X
Professor Gail Hoffman

Professor Gail Hoffman

Department Chair

| 617-552-3661 | Stokes 241S

Professor Kendra Eshleman
Professor Kendra Eshleman
Director
Undergraduate Studies

617-552-3661
X
Professor Kendra Eshleman

Professor Kendra Eshleman

Director

Undergraduate Studies

| 617-552-3661 | Stokes S237

Professor Mark Thatcher
Professor Mark Thatcher
Director
Ancient Civilization Minor

617-552-3661
X
Professor Mark Thatcher

Professor Mark Thatcher

Director

Ancient Civilization Minor

| 617-552-3661 | Stokes S245