<< Back to Exams

Roman History

1. Roman Republic: Political and Military History
   1. Primary: select two of the following in consultation with your professor.
      • Livy Histories books 5, 6, 20, 21, 37, 39
      • Polybius Histories books 1-6
      • Caesar Gallic Wars
      • Cicero Verrine Orations
      • Cicero Catilinarian Orations
      • Sallust Catiline and Iugurtha
   2. Secondary: select three of the following in consultation with your professor.
      • A.E. Astin et al. eds. The Cambridge Ancient History Vol. 8, 2nd ed. (Cambridge, 1989).
      • E. Badian Foreign Clientelae (Oxford, 1958).
      • E. Badian Publicans and Sinners (Ithaca, 1972).
      • P.A. Brunt The Fall of the Roman Republic and Related Essays (Oxford, 1988).
      • P.A. Brunt Italian manpower, 225 B.C.-A.D. 14 (Oxford, 1971).
      • J.A. Crook et al. eds. The Cambridge Ancient History Vol. 9, 2nd ed. (Cambridge, 1994).
      • E. Gruen The Hellenistic World and the Coming of Rome (Berkeley, 1984).
      • H.H. Scullard Roman Politics, 220-150 B.C (Oxford, 1973).
      • R. Syme The Roman Revolution (Oxford, 1939).
      • Ward, Heichelheim and Yeo A History of the Roman People, 3rd ed. (Upper Saddle River, 1998) chs. I-XXIV
2. Roman Empire: Political and Military History
   1. Primary: select two of the following in consultation with your professor.
      • Tacitus Annals books 1-4
      • Suetonius Lives of the Caesars
      • Historia Augusta
      • Dio Cassius Roman History books 50-56
      • Herodian History of the Empire
   2. Secondary: select three of the following in consultation with your professor.
      • A.K. Bowman et al. eds. The Cambridge Ancient History Vol. 10, 2nd ed. (Cambridge, 1995).
      • P.A. Brunt Roman Imperial Themes (Oxford, 1990).
      • E. Gibbon The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire chapters 1-16.
      • F. Millar The Emperor in the Roman World (Ithaca, 1977).
      • M. Rostovzeff The Social and Economic History of the Roman Empire, 2nd ed. (Oxford, 1957).
      • H.H. Scullard From the Gracchi to Nero (London, 1959).
      • R. Syme Tacitus (Oxford, 1958).
      • R.J.A. Talbert The Senate of Imperial Rome (Princeton, 1984).
      • Ward, Heichelheim and Yeo A History of the Roman People, 3rd ed. (Upper Saddle River, 1998) chs. XXII-XXXV.
3. Social History
   1. Primary: select two of the following in consultation with your professor.
      • Pliny the Younger Letters
      • Cato and Varro On Farming
      • Petronius Satyricon
      • Juvenal Satires
      • Apuleius The Golden Ass
      • Seneca Letters
      • Catullus
      • M. Fant and M. Lefkowitz Women in Greece and Rome 2nd ed. (London, 1982).
   2. Secondary: select three of the following in consultation with your professor
      • R. Duncan Jones The Economy of the Roman Empire (Cambridge, 1974).
      • K.R. Bradley Slaves and Masters in the Roman Empire (Oxford, 1987).
      • P. Garnsey and R. Saller The Roman Empire. Economy, Society and Culture (Berkeley, 1987).
      • P. Garnsey Famine and Food Supply in the Greco Roman World (Cambridge, 1988).
      • K. Hopkins Conquerors and Slaves (Cambridge, 1977).
      • R. Saller Patriarchy, Property, and Death in the Roman Family (Cambridge, 1994).
      • J.E. Stambaugh The Ancient Roman City (Baltimore, 1988).
      • G.E.M. de Ste. Croix The Class Struggle in the Ancient Greek World (Ithaca, 1981).
      • S. Treggiari Roman Marriage (Oxford, 1991).
      • P. Veyne Bread and Circuses (London, 1990).
4. Roman Law
   1. Primary
      • Gaius Institutes or Justinian Institutes
   2. Secondary: select three of the following in consultation with your professor.
      • Borkowski A Textbook of Roman Law (London, 1994).
      • E. J. Champlin Final Judgments: Duty and Emotion in Roman Wills, 200 B.C.-A.D. 250 (Princeton, 1989).
      • J.A. Crook Legal Advocacy in the Roman World (Ithaca, 1995).
      • J. A. Crook Law and Life in Republican Rome (Ithaca, 1967).
      • F. Jolowicz Historical Introduction to the Study of Roman Law (Cambridge, 1962).
      • A. Watson Roman Slave Law (Baltimore, 1987).
      • A. Watson International Law in Archaic Rome: War and Religion (Baltimore, 1993).
5. Religious History
   1. Primary: select two of the following in consultation with your professor.
      • Cicero On Divination
      • Cicero On the Nature of the Gods
      • M. Beard, J. North and S. Price Religions of Rome, vol. 2. A Sourcebook (Cambridge, 1998).
      • E. Lane and R. MacMullen Paganism and Christianity, 100-425 C.E.: A Sourcebook (Minneapolis, 1992).
      • Eusebius History of the Church
      • J. Gager Curse Tablets and Binding Spells from the Ancient World (Oxford, 1992).
      • Ovid Fasti
   2. Secondary: select three of the following in consultation with your professor.
      • M. Beard, S. Price and J. North Religions of Rome, vol. 1. A History (Cambridge, 1998).
      • M. Beard and J. North Pagan Priests: Religion and Power in the Ancient World (Ithaca, 1990).
      • G. Dumezil Archaic Roman Religion (Chicago, 1966).
      • G. Fowden The Egyptian Hermes (Princeton, 1986).
      • W.H.C. Frend The Rise of Christianity (Philadelphia, 1984).
      • R. Lane Fox Pagans and Christians (New York, 1986).
      • S. Price Rituals and Power: The Roman Imperial Cult in Asia Minor (Cambridge, 1984).
      • R. Turcan The Cults of the Roman Empire (Oxford, 1996).
6. Provinces
   1. Primary: select two of the following in consultation with your professor
      • N. Lewis and M. Rheinhold Roman Civilization 3rd ed. vol. II ch. 4
      • Josephus Jewish Wars
      • Pliny the Younger Letters book 10
      • Aelius Aristides Orations, especially To Rome
      • Dio Chrysostom Orations
      • Apuleius The Golden Ass
      • A. Bowman The Vindolanda Writing Tablets (London, 1994)
      • J. Reynolds Aphrodisias and Rome (London, 1989).
   2. Secondary (select three of the following in consultation with your professor)
      • S. Alcock Graecia Capta: The Landscapes of Roman Greece (Cambridge, 1993).
      • A. Bowman Egypt After the Pharaohs (Berkeley, 1986).
      • A.H.M. Jones The Cities of the Eastern Roman Provinces (Oxford, 1971).
      • D. Magie Roman Rule in Asia Minor (Princeton, 1950).
      • D.J. Mattingly Tripolitania (Ann Arbor, 1994).
      • F. Millar The Roman Near East 31 BC - AD 337 (Cambridge, 1993).
      • S. Mitchell Anatolia (Oxford, 1993).
      • A. Mocsy Pannonia and Upper Moesia (London, 1974).
      • P. Salway The Oxford Illustrated History of Roman Britain (Oxford, 1994).
      • G. Woolf Becoming Roman. The Origins of Provincial Civilization in Gaul (Cambridge, 1998).
7. The Roman Army
   1. Primary: select two of the following in consultation with your professor.
      • Polybius Histories book 6
      • Caesar The Gallic Wars
      • Anonymous De rebus bellicis
      • Frontinus Stratagemata
      • Vegetius De re militari
   2. Secondary (select three of the following in consultation with your professor)
      • A. Birley The Roman Army Papers, 1929-1986 (Amsterdam, 1986).
      • J.B. Campbell The Emperor and the Roman Army, 31 BC-AD235 (Oxford, 1984).
      • H. Elton Warfare in Roman Europe, AD 350-425 (Oxford, 1996).
      • E. Gabba Republican Rome, the Army, and the Allies (Berkeley, 1976).
      • A. Goldsworthy The Roman army at war, 100 BC-AD 200 (Oxford, 1996).
      • L. Keppie The Making of the Roman Army: From Republic to Empire (Totowa, 1984).
      • E. Luttwak The Grand Strategy of the Roman Empire (Baltimore, 1976).
      • M. Speidel Roman Army Studies (Amsterdam, 1984).
      • C.R. Whittaker Frontiers of the Roman Empire (Baltimore, 1994).
8. Cultural History
   1. Primary: select two of the following in consultation with your professor
      • Suetonius Lives of the Grammarians and Rhetors
      • Virgil Aeneid
      • Horace Odes and Satires
      • Propertius Elegies
   2. Secondary (select three of the following in consultation with your professor)
      • G. Bowersock Hellenism in Late Antiquity (Ann Arbor, 1990).
      • E. Gruen Culture and National Identity in Republican Rome (Ithaca, 1992).
      • W.V. Harris Ancient Literacy (Cambridge, 1989).
      • H.I. Marrou A History of Education in Antiquity (Madison, 1956).
      • R.A. Kaster Guardians of Language (Berkeley, 1988).
      • E. Rawson Roman Culture and Society (Oxford, 1991)
      • E. Rawson Intellectual Life in the Late Roman Republic (Baltimore, 1985).
      • A. Wallace-Haddrill Houses and Society in Pompeii and Herculaneum (Princeton, 1994).
9. Late Antiquity
   1. Primary (select two of the following in consultation with your professor)
      • Ammianus Marcellinus Histories books 14-31
      • Procopius Histories of the Wars and Secret History
      • Augustine Confessions
      • Eunapius Lives of the Sophists
      • Symmachus Relationes
      • Eusebius Life of Constantine
      • Gregory of Nazianzen Or. 43: Funeral Oration on the Life of Basil
      • Socrates Scholasticus History of the Church
   2. Secondary (select three of the following in consultation with your professor)
      • T.D. Barnes Constantine and Eusebius (Cambridge, 1981).
      • P. Brown The World of Late Antiquity (London, 1981).
      • P. Brown Augustine of Hippo (Berkeley 1967).
      • J.B. Bury History of the Later Roman Empire (New York, 1958).
      • A. Cameron The Mediterranean World in Late Antiquity (London, 1993).
      • A. Cameron et al. ed. The Cambridge Ancient History Vol. 13, 2nd ed. (Cambridge, 1998).
      • G. Fowden From Empire to Commonwealth (Princeton, 1994).
      • P. Heather Goths and Romans 332-489 (Oxford, 1991).
      • A.H.M. Jones The Later Roman Empire (Oxford, 1964).
      • J. Matthews The Roman Empire of Ammianus (Baltimore, 1989).
      • J. Matthews Western Aristocracies and Imperial Court AD 364-425 (Oxford, 1975).