Department of Classics

Chair

Denis C. Feeney

Director of Graduate Studies

Robert A. Kaster

Professor

Edward J. Champlin

Denis C. Feeney

Andrew L. Ford

Robert A. Kaster

Brent D. Shaw

Christian Wildberg

Froma I. Zeitlin, also Comparative Literature

Associate Professor

Andrew M. Feldherr

Harriet I. Flower

Joshua T. Katz

Janet M. Martin

Assistant Professor

Mark Buchan

Marc Domingo Gygax

Constanze M. Güthenke

Lecturer

Michael A. Flower

Dimitri H. Gondicas

Christian Kaesser

Visiting Professor

Simon D. Goldhill, also Council of the Humanities

Maria Mavroudi, also History, Hellenic Studies

 

Language Requirements

Students entering the Department of Classics must have a good command of Greek and Latin. Sight examinations in one ancient language (prose and poetry) must be passed during the first year; in the other, they must be passed no later than May of the second year. Any deficiencies must be remedied at once by independent reading and appropriate undergraduate courses in which additional work may be assigned.

A reading knowledge of both French (or Italian) and German is desirable for admission. No student is permitted to enter the second year without demonstrating proficiency in at least one of these languages; proficiency in the other must be demonstrated no later than the end of that same year.

Throughout the graduate program, and especially during the three years before completion of the general examination, students are expected to read widely in representative ancient authors, over and above those covered in their courses, the reading list, or the general examination.

Course Requirements

The department normally requires each student to take a total of 12 courses over three years. Students are strongly encouraged to take courses in the fields of art and archaeology, classical philosophy, and linguistics, as well as literature and history.

General Examination

Entering students should prepare themselves to take the general examination, which has both written and oral components. All candidates are tested on Greek literature to the age of Constantine and Latin literature to the age of Boethius. Students in the Program in the Ancient World must take the Greek and Roman history examinations. Students in other fields of specialization may take only one of these history examinations if they satisfy the department of their competence in the other field with a requirement comprising two seminars and a paper. All generals must be attempted no later than May of the third year.

Master of Arts Degree

The Master of Arts (M.A.) degree is normally an incidental degree on the way to full Ph.D. candidacy, but may also be awarded to students who for various reasons leave the Ph.D. program. In order to qualify for the M.A. degree, a student must have passed the sight translation examinations, participated successfully in at least 12 seminars, and written at least 6 acceptable research papers.

A student who completes all departmental requirements (course work, language examinations, and research papers, with no incompletes from the first year and first term of the second year), but fails the general examination, may take it a second time. If the student fails the general examination a second time, Ph.D. candidacy is automatically terminated. The student must then resolve any incompletes, complete current course work, and meet the requirements described above before the M.A. degree is awarded.

Special Examinations

Students prepare for one or two special examinations on an author or a topic of their choice (the number and the type of these examinations vary with the curricular option chosen). These examinations normally are completed by the end of the third year.

Dissertation

The fourth and fifth years of study are devoted to the writing of the doctoral dissertation. No later than November 1 of the fourth year, each student presents to a faculty committee a detailed dissertation proposal. Students participate in a dissertation workshop seminar during their final two years.

When the dissertation is completed, it is read by two readers in addition to the supervisor. Once it is accepted by the department on their recommendation, the candidate must pass a final public oral examination.

Teaching Requirements

Teaching experience is an essential component of doctoral training. Under normal circumstances, Princeton Ph.D. candidates are required, as part of their training, to teach for at least two terms. Postgenerals students are encouraged to apply for a teaching assistantship for one of the undergraduate lecture courses, which generally involves two to four hours a week; language teaching is normally scheduled after candidates have served as assistants in a lecture course. Appointments are made by the department chair, according to the needs of the undergraduate program, to third-, fourth-, and fifth-year students. The department expects students to fulfill the departmental teaching requirements before accepting any external teaching.

Interdepartmental Programs

The following programs are offered in cooperation with other departments and are described elsewhere in this catalog: ancient world, classical philosophy, comparative literature, Hellenic studies, and political philosophy.

Students wishing to equip themselves in any of these fields follow, under the supervision of a joint committee, a selective scheme of preparation combining the fields represented by the program concerned.

Research Facilities

In addition to the general collections of the University Library, graduate students in the classics department have use of three graduate study rooms on the third floor of Firestone Library that contain a working library of many thousands of volumes. In the adjoining stacks, the remainder of the classical collection is conveniently accessible. The library of the Princeton Theological Seminary is specially equipped for students in patristic Greek and Latin, and is available for use by graduate students in classics. Other available collections in the library are the Garrett and Scheide Collections of manuscripts, Greek and Roman coins, Greek papyri from Egypt, the Patterson Collection of editions of Horace, and the Morgan Collection of Vergil.

By arrangement with the Institute for Advanced Study, the facilities provided by its School of Historical Studies are available to graduate students of the University without any additional charge.

Courses

Normally 10 to 12 seminars are offered during the academic year from among the following courses.

CLA 500 Greek Prose Composition

Andrew L. Ford, Christian Wildberg

The course is a weekly exercise in translating selected passages of English into Greek, with intensive study of grammar and style. Research paper not required for credit. Offered alternately with CLA 501.

CLA 501 Latin Prose Composition

Robert A. Kaster, Janet M. Martin

The course is a weekly exercise in translating selected passages of English into Latin, with intensive study of grammar and style. Research paper not required for credit. Offered alternately with CLA 500.

CLA 502 Survey of Selected Greek Literature

Mark Buchan, Andrew L. Ford, Froma I. Zeitlin

The course concentrates on reading selected texts within a particular genre or genres, or period. Research paper not required for credit. Offered alternately with CLA 503.

CLA 503 Survey of Selected Latin Literature

Denis C. Feeney, Andrew M. Feldherr, Robert A. Kaster

The course concentrates on reading selected texts within a particular genre or genres, or period. Research paper not required for credit. Offered alternately with CLA 502.

CLA 504 Homer

Mark Buchan, Andrew L. Ford, Froma I. Zeitlin

The Iliad or The Odyssey, depending upon the instructor’s and the students’ interests. Content and emphasis vary, but normally include study of traditional and contemporary categories of interpretation and a close analysis of poetic style. Lectures by the instructor; short reports.

CLA 505 Greek Lyric Poetry

Mark Buchan, Andrew L. Ford

The origin and development of Greek elegiac, iambic, and melic poetry; reading and analysis of the works of various authors, with attention to linguistic, metrical, textual, and historical problems. Lectures and reports.

CLA 506 Greek Tragedy

Froma I. Zeitlin

The origin and development of tragedy, the Greek theater, and the history of our texts. The course involves the reading and analysis of selected tragedies, with an emphasis on the language, meter, and interpretation of the plays. Lectures and report.

CLA 508 Greek Comedy

Froma I. Zeitlin

The course centers on two, possibly three, comedies of Aristophanes, and, if time and interest permit, Menander’s Dyskolos. Reports on selected problems of Old Comedy are assigned, such as origins, metrics, parody, politics, and textual problems. Occasional lectures by the instructor.

CLA 509 Plato

Christian Wildberg

The course gives a general introduction to the form and content of Plato’s philosophy. Either the Republic and related Dialogues (Meno, Euthyphro, Gorgias) or the Symposium and Phaedrus are studied intensively.

CLA 510 Aristotle

Christian Wildberg

The course gives an introduction to the philosophy of Aristotle based on the study of selected texts, leading to a more intensive concentration on one branch—either philosophy of nature or ethics.

CLA 511, 512 Greek Historiography

Marc Domingo Gygax

The course is an intensive study of one or more major historical writers—Herodotus, Thucydides, Polybius, and others.

CLA 513 Ancient Literary Criticism

Andrew L. Ford

Study of a selection of critical texts, such as the following: Plato, Republic and Phaedrus; Aristotle, Poetics and Rhetoric; “Longinus,” On the Sublime; Cicero, De oratore, etc.; Horace, De arte poetica; and Quintilian, Institutio Oratoria.

CLA 514, 515 Problems in Greek Literature

Staff

Special problems are selected for intensive investigation, such as the origin and development of a genre, analysis of form, and history of ideas.

CLA 521, 522 Problems in Greek History

Marc Domingo Gygax

Special problems, such as Athenian imperialism, Sparta, political structures, and the political role of cults and festivals, are studied in rotation.

CLA 525 The Pre-Socratic Philosophers

Christian Wildberg

The course is an introduction to the history of philosophy before Socrates, concentrating on the fragments of Parmenides and those who came after him.

CLA 526 Problems in Greek and Roman Philosophy

Christian Wildberg

Special problems are selected for intensive investigation. The subject matter of the course changes to adapt to the particular interests of the students and the instructor.

CLA 529 Topics in the Hellenic Tradition (also HLS 529)

Constanze M. Güthenke

An interdisciplinary seminar devoted to the study of aspects of the post-classical Greek literary and cultural tradition, including modern Greek literature and its relation to classical literature and civilization.

CLA 530 Roman Comedy

Andrew M. Feldherr

Studies in the plays of Plautus and Terence. Selected plays of one or both authors are read. Problems and reports cover a variety of approaches to the comedies, such as literary criticism, literary history (including their relation to Greek predecessors), textual criticism, and linguistics.

CLA 531 Cicero

Robert A. Kaster

Selections from the orations, letters, and rhetorical or philosophical works of Cicero are read. The course may be organized around a period in Cicero’s life, a literary genre, or Roman private or public life, depending upon the interests of the instructor and the students.

CLA 532 Lucretius and Epicureanism

Denis C. Feeney, Robert A. Kaster

De rerum natura is read, analyzed, and discussed, both as an exposition of Epicurean atomism and as a Latin poem.

CLA 533 Vergil

Denis C. Feeney, Andrew M. Feldherr

The seminar generally considers either the Aeneid or the Georgics and Eclogues. Discussions and reports center on the interpretation of the poems in themselves and in the light of Augustan literature and politics.

CLA 534 Roman Lyric and Elegiac Poetry

Denis C. Feeney, Andrew M. Feldherr

One or more of the following poets are considered in any given year: Catullus, Horace, Tibullus, Propertius, and Ovid.

CLA 536 Ovid

Denis C. Feeney, Andrew M. Feldherr

Study of either Metamorphoses or selected elegiac poetry, focusing on problems of sources, narrative technique, and genre.

CLA 537 The Roman Novel

Janet M. Martin

Study of Petronius’s Satyricon or Apuleius’s Metamorphoses or both, with some attention given to Greek and Roman formative influences and the later romance and novelistic traditions.

CLA 538 Latin Poetry of the Empire

Denis C. Feeney

Intensive study of Lucan, Seneca, Statius, and/or other writers.

CLA 539, 540 Latin Historiography

Andrew M. Feldherr, Robert A. Kaster

An intensive study of one or more major historical writers such as Sallust, Livy, and Tacitus.

CLA 541 Survey of Early Medieval Latin Literature

Janet M. Martin

Reading selected texts that illustrate the development of Latin literature and the Latin language from late Antiquity to the reassertion of classical norms in the early Carolingian period. Prose selections focus on history, biography, and letters. Verse selections trace the evolution of epic, elegiac, and rhythmical poetry. Research paper not required for credit.

CLA 542, 543 Problems in Latin Literature

Denis C. Feeney, Andrew M. Feldherr, Robert A. Kaster

Special problems are selected for intensive investigation, such as the origin and development of a genre, analysis of form, and history of ideas.

CLA 545, 546 Problems in Roman History

Edward J. Champlin, Harriet I. Flower, Marc Domingo Gygax, Brent D. Shaw

Larger themes, such as Roman imperialism, the decline of the republic, and the rise of the multicultural empire, are considered in rotation with the study of specific problems and ancillary disciplines.

CLA 547, 548 Problems in Ancient History

Edward J. Champlin, Harriet I. Flower, Marc Domingo Gygax, Josiah Ober, Brent D. Shaw

Study of a topic involving both ancient Greece and ancient Rome, such as imperialism or slavery, from a comparative perspective.

CLA 552 The Classical Tradition in the Middle Ages

Janet M. Martin

An examination of the interactions of medieval classical scholarship and Latin literature, with reference to an outstanding author or literary circle, such as Hildebert of Le Mans, John of Salisbury, or the 10th-century Ottonian court. Some attention is given to methods of investigating the medieval transmission and reception of classical authors.

CLA 561 Historical/Comparative Grammar of Latin

Joshua T. Katz

Introduction to Latin historical/comparative grammar via reading of preclassical texts, including both literary texts (Cato, Ennius, Saturnian poetry) and nonliterary forms (early inscriptions, the Twelve Tables, the Latin grammatical tradition); the position of Latin among the languages of ancient Italy; and the development of the literary language.

CLA 562 Historical/Comparative Grammar of Greek

Joshua T. Katz

Introduction to Greek historical/comparative grammar, based primarily on early Greek epic material (including Hesiod), with special attention given to topics in Homeric linguistics and poetics. (For Greek dialects and Mycenaean, see CLA 564.)

CLA 564 Problems in Indo-European Linguistics

Joshua T. Katz

Special topics are selected for investigation, such as comparative syntax or Indo-European particles. Or, a particular Indo-European dialect may be studied, such as Osco-Umbrian or Hittite.

CLA 575, 576 Introduction to Sanskrit (also LIN 575, 576)

Joshua T. Katz

Introduction to Classical Sanskrit aimed at developing a proficiency in reading prose and verse, with attention given to the history of the language in its Indo-European context.

CLA 599 Dissertation Writers’ Seminar

Christian Wildberg

A practical and theoretical introduction to scholarly writing at the dissertation level and beyond. Specific topics to be addressed include identifying promising avenues of research in current scholarship, writing, and defending a dissertation proposal, and devising strategies for organizing and presenting research. The seminar provides a forum for students to get feedback on work in progress, and to discuss issues that arise in the course of writing. This course is normally taken by all post-generals graduate students each year and is offered every term.