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Classics Graduate Distance Learning Program

Distance Learning Reading Lists

MA/ML Latin Reading List

The MA and ML Comprehensive Reading Examination in Latin consists of two prose and two poetry passages, selected from the reading list below. Students have two hours to complete written translations of three of the four passages.  See the Distance Program site in Canvas, or ask Dr. Yates, for old exams to study.

  • Apuleius, Metamorphoses I
  • Caesar, Bellum Gallicum I.1-29, V-VI
  • Catullus, 1-60, 65, 67, 69-116
  • Cicero, in Catilinam 1-4, pro Caelio, pro Archia, Somnium Scipionis
  • Horace, Carmina I, IV.2, 7, Carmen Saeculare, Sermones I.1, 4, 5-6
  • Juvenal, 3, 6
  • Livy, ab Urbe Condita XXI
  • Lucretius, de Rerum Natura I
  • Martial, V.37, 47; X.30, 62
  • Ovid, Ars Amatoria I, Amores I.1-5, Metamorphoses I
  • Petronius, Cena Trimalchionis
  • Plautus, Menaechmi
  • Pliny the Younger, III.16; VI.16, 20
  • Propertius, I.1, 5, 7, 9, 20, 22, II.8-13, 26a, 27, 28b-c, III.1, 2, 10, 18, 21, IV.7, 11
  • Sallust, Bellum Catilinae
  • Seneca, Epistulae 65, 88, 114
  • Tacitus, Annales I
  • Terence, Adelphoe
  • Tibulus, I.10
  • Vergil, Aeneid I-VI, Eclogues IV, Georgics IV.315-566

M.L. Literature, History, and Culture Reading List

The supervisory committee of two faculty members will administer a comprehensive examination in Latin literature, history, and culture, consisting of two parts (a) a two-hour written examination and (b) a one-hour oral examination, upon completion of the student’s coursework.  The following list contains suggested works to consult for exam preparation.  See the Distance Program site in Canvas, or ask Dr. Yates, for old exams to study.

  • Roman Art and Architecture:
    • Nancy Ramage and Andrew Ramage, Roman Art: Romulus to Constantine, 5th ed. (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2005)
    • Paul Zanker, The Power of Images in the Age of Augustus (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan, 1990)
  • Roman Culture and History:
    • Antony Kamm, The Romans: An Introduction, 2nd ed. (London: Routledge, 2008)
    • Robert B. Kebric, Roman People, 4th ed. (Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2005)
    • Peter Garnsey and Richard Saller, The Roman Empire: Economy, Society, and Culture (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1987)
    • David S. Potter, Ancient Rome: A New History (London: Thames and Hudson, 2009)
  • Roman Literature:
    • Gian Biagio Conte, Latin Literature: A History, tr. J.B. Solodow (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1994)

PhD Latin Reading List

The Comprehensive Reading Examination in Latin for PhD students in the Latin and Roman Studies track consists of 3 prose and 3 poetry passages, selected from the reading list below. Students have three hours to complete written translations of two prose and two poetry passages.

Students in the PhD in Classical Civilization track will also use this reading list for a comprehensive examination on Latin reading and the history of Latin literature. This is a four-hour examination, including translation of three out of four passages (two prose, two poetry), selected from the reading list. (These passages will be shorter than the ones on the Latin and Roman Studies Latin reading examination.)

See the Distance Program site in Canvas, or ask Dr. Yates, for old exams to study.

  • Ammianus, XIV, XVI.1-10, XXV.1-4
  • Apuleius, Metamorphoses I
  • Augustine, Confessions III, VIII
  • Augustus, Res Gestae Divi Augusti
  • Caesar, Bellum Gallicum I, V-VI, Bellum Civile I, III
  • Catullus, 1-60, 64-65, 67, 69-116
  • Cicero, in Catilinam 1-4, pro Caelio, pro Archia, Somnium Scipionis, in Verrem 1, Phillipics 2, de Officiis 1, Letters (in Shackleton Bailey’s classroom edition)
  • Horace, Carmina, Carmen Saeculare, Epodes, Sermones I.1, 4, 5-6
  • Juvenal, 1, 3, 6
  • Livy, ab Urbe Condita I, V, XXI, XXII, XXX
  • Lucan, I or VII
  • Lucretius, de Rerum Natura I
  • Martial, V.37, 47; X.30, 62
  • Ovid, Ars Amatoria I, Amores I.1-5, Metamorphoses I, XV, Fasti I, Tristia IV.10
  • Petronius, Cena Trimalchionis
  • Plautus, Menaechmi
  • Pliny the Younger, III.16; VI.16, 20, X, and the entire selection in Sherwin-White’s Fifty Letters of Pliny
  • Propertius, I, II.8-13, 26a, 27, 28b-c, III.1, 2, 10, 18, 21, IV
  • Sallust, Bellum Catilinae, Bellum Jugurtha
  • Seneca, Epistulae 65, 88, 114, Apocolocyntosis
  • Suetonius, Julius Caesar, Augustus, Nero, Vespasian
  • Tacitus, Annales I, XIV, XV, Histories I
  • Terence, Adelphoe
  • Tibullus, I
  • Vergil, Aeneid, Eclogues I, IV, IX, Georgics IV.315-566

Ph.D. History of Latin literature reading list

This exam consists of essay questions based largely on Gian Biagio Conte’s Latin Literature: A History, tr. J.B. Solodow (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1994), confined to the historical periods/genres/authors represented in the Ph.D. Latin Reading List Exam.  See the Distance Program site in Canvas, or ask Dr. Yates, for old exams to study.