Latin M.A. Reading List
This list is intended to help you prepare for the MA Latin preliminary examination. That exam is a test of your competence in Latin and your familiarity with the field of Latin literature, rather than a test on this list. Read as much as you can in preparation. The pass mark is 80%.
MA students planning to continue to a PhD are strongly encouraged to take a PhD-level exam, even while registered in the MA program. An MA student who takes the PhD exam and passes it at the PhD level (85% or higher) will, as a result, be qualified for their MA (pending satisfactory fulfillment of the other MA requirements) and be considered to have passed the PhD Latin preliminary exam, if they continue into the PhD program at this institution. Both the PhD and the MA reading lists are printed below, in order to illustrate the strong relationship between the two.
The exam will consist of two sections: A. Translation; B. Passage analysis:
A. The translation section will consist of two out of three passages of poetry and two out of three passages of prose to be translated, all to be drawn from the reading list. Each poetry passage will be ca. 20-25 lines in length, and the prose passages of a length corresponding to that.
B. The analysis section will require exam-takers to discuss one out of two passages of prose and one out of two passages of poetry, all to be drawn from the reading list.
Instructions as they appear on the exam paper are given below.
Substitutions to the present list: students may propose substitutions of equivalent difficulty and length pertaining to up to two prose and two verse authors; these substitutions would need to be approved by the graduate director in consultation with the graduate committee.
Copies of all texts and commentaries recommended are available in Norlin and in the Classics library in Eaton Humanities (HUMN 345); please alert the Chair of the Library Committee if you find any missing from either library. Those wishing to build their own Classics libraries (e.g. those planning to pursue a PhD) may wish to consider purchasing personal copies of the texts and commentaries recommended as an investment for the future.
As you read the texts, we recommend reading the introductions to the commentaries listed below, especially those in the Cambridge Greek and Latin Classics series. We also recommend supplementing your reading of the Latin text by background reading in one of the standard literary histories, e.g. G.B. Conte’s Latin Literature: A History, transl. J.B. Solodow, rev. D. Fowler and Glenn Most, Baltimore & Laton (John Hopkins) or the Cambridge History of Classical Literature, Vol. 2. You will find both of these in HUMN 350. No Classics library books should leave their respective rooms! Further advice on secondary reading on individual authors is available from faculty.
Instructions as they appear on the exam:
Ia. Translation: Prose. Translate two of the following passages into accurate and idiomatic English.
Ib. Translation: Poetry. Translate two of the following passages into accurate and idiomatic English.
II. Select one of the following two passages of poetry in (a) and one of the two passages of prose in (b), and write an analytical essay on each. If you can, identify the author, work, and location of the passage within the work; the author’s date, historical milieu, and the context of the passage or work within the author's career; speakers and others referred to directly or indirectly; and places, events, or other important points of reference. Comment on significant themes as well as formal features such as meter or rhythm, dialect, and genre; if possible identify the performance venue, occasion, or intended readership. Paraphrase is not necessary and should not be used for its own sake, but you may use it to support interpretation of the text.
| Latin MA reading List | Latin PhD reading list |
Apuleius |
| Metamorphoses 4.28–6.24 (Kenney: CGCL 1990) |
Augustine |
| Confessions 1 (Clark: Cambridge Imperial Library 2005; O’Donnell: Oxford) |
Ausonius |
| Moselle (Green: Oxford 1991) |
Caesar | Civil Wars 1 (Carter: Aris and Phillips 1991; Kramer / Hofmann: Berlin 1881 [German]) | Civil Wars 1 (Carter: Aris and Phillips 1991; Kramer / Hofmann: Berlin 1881 [German]) |
Catullus | 1-64, 70-116 (Fordyce: Oxford 1961, where available; Kroll: ed. 5 Stuttgart 1959 [German]; Quinn: London 1973 where Fordyce is not available) | all (Fordyce: Oxford 1961, where available; Kroll: ed. 5 Stuttgart 1959 [German]; |
Cicero | In Catilinam 1, 3 (Dyck: CGLC 2008) | In Catilinam 1-4 (Dyck: CGLC 2008) |
Ennius |
| Annals (Skutsch: Oxford 1985; for now, use Warmington’s Loeb translation for guidance) |
Horace | Odes: | Odes: |
Jerome |
| Epistula 52 to Nepotian (Cain: Brill, 2013); |
Juvenal | Satires 1, 3 (Braund: CGLC 1996; you may also find Courtney: London 1980 useful; reissued in paperback in 2013, by California Classical Studies) | Satires 1-5 (Braund: CGLC 1996; you may also find Courtney: London 1980 useful; reissued in paperback in 2013, by California Classical Studies) |
Livy | Book 1 (Gould & Whiteley: London 1952, repr. BCP 1987; Ogilvie: Oxford 1965) | Book 1 (Gould & Whiteley: London 1952, repr. BCP 1987; Ogilvie: Oxford 1965) |
Livius Andronicus |
| Odusia(Warmington: Loeb 1936 with reprints; Flores: Naples 2011 [Italian]) |
Lucan | Bellum Civile, Book 1 (Roche: Oxford 2009) | Bellum Civile, Book 1, (Roche: Oxford 2009), 7 (Lanzarone: Florence 2016) |
Lucretius | Book 1.1-249, 921-50 (Leonard & Smith: Wisconsin 1970) | Book 1 (Leonard & Smith: Wisconsin 1970) |
Martial | Select Epigrams 1, 4, 7, 8, 11, 16, 18, 30, 43, 54, 68, 80, 81, 83, 85 (Watson and Watson: CGLC 2003) | Select Epigrams(Watson and Watson: CGLC 2003) |
Naevius |
| Bellum Punicum(Barchiesi: Padua 1962 [Italian]; Flores: Naples 2011 [Italian]) |
Ovid | Ars Amatoria 1 (Hollis: Oxford 1977) | Ars Amatoria 1 (Hollis: Oxford 1977) |
Petronius | Satyricon 26-78: the Cena Trimalchionis | Satyricon 26-78: the Cena Trimalchionis (Smith and/or Schmeling) |
Plautus | Menaechmi | Amphitruo(Christenson: CGLC 2000) |
Pliny the Younger | Epistles (Sherwin-White: Oxford 1966) | Epistles (Sherwin-White: Oxford 1966) |
Propertius | Book 1 (Camps: Cambridge 1961; Fedeli: Florence 1980 [Italian]) | Book 1 (Camps: Cambridge 1961; Fedeli: Florence 1980 [Italian]) |
Prudentius |
| Psychomachia(Burton: Bryn Mawr 1989) |
Quintilian |
| Institutio Oratoria10.1 (Peterson: Oxford 1903) |
Sallust | Bellum Catilinae (Ramsey: APA 1984; ed. 2, 2007) | Bellum Catilinae(Ramsey: APA 1984; ed. 2, 2007) |
Seneca | Thyestes (Tarrant: APA 1985) | Thyestes (Tarrant: APA 1985) |
Statius (Hill: Leiden 1983) | Thebaid 9 (Dewar: Oxford 1991) | Thebaid 9 (Dewar: Oxford 1991) |
Suetonius |
| Augustus (Wardle: Oxford 2014) |
Tacitus | Agricola (Kraus & Woodman: CGLC 2014) Annals 4 (Woodman and Martin: CGLC 1989; Furneaux: Oxford, ed. 2, 1896. | Agricola (Kraus & Woodman: CGLC 2014) |
Terence | Adelphoe (Martin: CGLC 1976) | Adelphoe (Martin: CGLC 1976); |
Tibullus | Book 1.1-4 (Maltby: Cambridge 2002; Flower Smith: New York 1913, repr. Darmstadt 1964, 1985) | Book 1 (Maltby: Cambridge 2002; Flower Smith: New York 1913, repr. Darmstadt 1964, 1985) |
Vergil | Eclogues 1, 4-6, 9-10 (Clausen: Oxford 1994 and/or Coleman: CGLC 1977) | Eclogues (Clausen: Oxford 1994 and/or Coleman: CGLC 1977) |