I’m not really a classicist, I don’t pretend to be. Patristics isn’t Classics anyway, and my route to where I am was very, hmm, “liberal arts”. Across my studies I accumulated majors, or their equivalents, in Philosophy, Creative Writing, Latin, and Theology. My doctoral studies took place in a system which doesn’t have comps or the like. I, sort of, did something similar in my Masters. The assumption, in the Australian system, is that if you’re not competent in your field your thesis would reveal that anyway.

All of which leaves me feeling a little under-done in the area of classical literature in the original languages. And by classics I really do mean the canonical core of big-C Classics. Which is why I am thinking about (maybe have started?) trying to work through one of the reading lists for Classics students from a US college.

Not that US degrees are somehow better or worth more or whatever, but certainly the structure of US degrees is more rigid. And, fortunately, they tend to just post lists of the expected reading their students are meant to have covered. It’s not at all hard to compile such a list (I’ve included a selection at the end).

I don’t have a time-frame on this, I just plan to start, read what’s interesting, cover a great deal of Greek and Latin, and fill in some of those holes. I suppose, given that doctoral students might cover these in 2 years, I might do it in 8?

While I can’t imagine anyone sitting at home is thinking, “Yes, I too would like to do so”, I’ll have some related thoughts/suggestions on this later in the week.

Easily accessible Classics reading lists (no particular order or sorting):

John Hopkins: Greek; Latin

Washington

Florida: MA List , PhD List (assumes MA)

Harvard

Boston College (MA, PhD)

Berkeley

Princeton

UCLA

Brown

Colorado: Latin ; Greek

Michigan

Yale