Ancient Greece and Rome

a guide to library resources

Reference Books - Ancient History

• Pauly's Real-Encyclopadie der Classischen Altertumswissenschaft. (DE 5.P33) Huge. Several supplements. In German.
• Brill's New Pauly: encyclopaedia of the ancient world. (Ref DE 5.N3513 2002) In progress. A new, English version of Pauly. Includes, in each volume, a useful list of "Bibliographic abbreviations." Classical Tradition volumes are at Ref DE 5.N3515 2006). These focus on the continuing influence of classical history and thought on later times.
• The Encyclopedia of the Classical World. (Ref DE 5.E533) Alphabetical arrangement. No references.
• The Oxford Classical Dictionary. (Ref DE 5.)9 1996) Alphabetical, with selected references.
• The Oxford Companion to Classical Civilization. (Ref DE 5.)94 1998) A "light" version of the above title, with illustrations.
• Ancient Europe: 8000 BC to 1000 AD: an encyclopedia of the Barbarian World (online). The focus is on Europe outside of Greece and Rome.
• Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography. (Ref DE 25.G67 1966) 2 vols. Extensive treatments of places, often with maps.
• A New Topographical Dictionary of ancient Rome. (Ref DG 68.R5 1992) - a dictionary of buildings and structures in Rome.
• Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. (Ref DE 5.S5 1956. Seyffert, ed.
• The Praeger Encyclopedia of Ancient Greek Civilization. (Ref DF 16.D513 1967c) Alphabetical, no references.
• Harper's Dictionary of Classical Literature and Antiquities. (Ref DE 5.P36 1963)
• Barrington atlas of the Greek and Roman world. (Ref G 1033 .B3 2000) - a major new effort.
• Atlas of the Classical World. (Ref DE 29.H463) Chronological. Maps, illustrations, photographs, and text.
• Atlas of Classical Antiquities. (Ref DE 59.S32) Largely illustrations of cultural features such as buildings, objects, dress, etc.
• Atlas of the Greek and Roman World in Antiquity. (Ref G 1033.A84 1981)
• Atlas of Classical History. (Ref G 1033.A833 1985)
• Cosmographia. Roma, 1478. Ptolemy. (Ref G 1005 1966)
• Articles on Antiquity in Festschriften, an index. (Ref D 57.A1R68 1962) a keyword title and author index to articles in collected works

Reference Books - History in General

• The Encyclopedia of World History (Ref D 21.E578 2001) 6th ed.
• Chronology of World Histroy (Ref D 11.M39 1999) vol. 1 - "Prehistory - A.D. 1491: the ancient and medieval world"
• Dictionary of Concepts in History (Ref D 13.R49 1986)
• Fifty Key Thinkers in History (Ref D 13.H75 2000)
• The Blackwell Dictionary of Historians (Ref D 14.B58 1988)
• The Times Atlas of World History. (Ref G 1030.T54 1993)
• AHA Guide to Historical Literature. (Ref D 20.A1A55 1995)

Selected Texts

• The Cambridge Ancient History (D 57.C252) v.4 - "Persia, Greece and the Western Mediterranean, c.525-479 B.C. ; v.5 - "5th Century B.C." ; v.6 - The fourth century B.C ; v 8 - Rome and the Mediterranean to 133 B. C.
• A History of Greece to 322 B.C. (DF 241.H28 1967) Hammond.
• Ancient Rome (DG 77.G37 2005) Dillon.
• The Ancient World (D 57.S36) Scramuzza.

Primary Sources

• Search BearCat for the works of the Greek and Roman historians:
  • Herodotus, Thucydides, Xenophon, Polybius, Pausanias, etc.
  • Livy, Plutarch, Tacitus, Caesar, etc.
• The Loeb Classical Library is a large collection of classical works; most are found in the PA 3000 to PA 6160 section
• To find collections of primary sources, search the library catalog using subject terms such as "Sources." For example: Greece history sources. Other terms often useful for finding primary sources include: correspondence, diaries, personal narratives
• Selected collections of historical documents
  • Archaic and Classical Greece: a selection of ancient sources in translation. (DF 12.C7 1983)
  • The Greek Polis (CB 245.U64 1986)
  • Ancient Greece (DF 209.5.B7) (Sources in Western Civilization)
  • Sources for Greek history between the Persian and Pelopennesian wars (DF 209.5.H65)
  • Readings in Ancient History: illustrative extracts from the sources. (D 59.D3) vol.1 "Greece and the East"
  • Urbs Roma: a source book of classical texts on the city & its monuments. (DG 68 .D83)
  • Rome (DG 13.S5) (Sources in Western Civilization)
  • Ancient Rome : from the early Republic to the assassination of Julius Caesar (DG 77.G37 2005)
  • Women in the Classical World: image and text (HQ 1127.W652 1994)
  • Women's Life in Greece and Rome: a source book in translation. (HQ 1127.W653 1993)

Internet Sites

• Internet Ancient History Sourcebooks: These include links to complete texts of some primary sources, maps, etc. These are mainly public domain texts and translations, meaning thy were done more than 75 years ago. Some links are dead and nothing has been added in recent years, but it remains a useful collection.
  • Greece
  • Hellenistic World
  • Rome
• The Perseus Digital Library- a project of Tufts University. A collection of resources for the study of classical civilizations.
• The Ancient Greek World - "a virtual gallery at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology."
• The Stoa Consortium - links for digital classicists. See the list of resources in the right-hand column.
• Ancient History Websites - a guide from Iowa State Univ.
• Ancient History Links - a directory from the Open Directory Project

"BearCat": the online catalog

• Subject Searching: use "Words in Subject" mode to search with terms such as:
  • Greece - history ; Greece - antiquities ; Greece - civilization
  • Art ancient - Greece
  • Athens (Greece)
• "Words in Title+Contents": this search mode searches all words in the title of books, and "Contents" when they are available
• "All Fields": use any name, place, or other term. Searches titles, contents notes, and subject headings
• Browsing: "Subject begins with..." can help with finding good subject headings
• Browsing the shelves: These are the main sections of the Library of Congress classification system that relate to ancient history and civilization
  • B 187 -- Greek philosophy
  • D 52 - D 69 -- Ancient history
  • DE -- Classical antiquity
  • DF 1 - DF 299 -- Ancient Greek history
  • DG 11 - DG 365 -- Ancient Rome
  • PA -- Classical languages and literature

Other library catalogs

• From the library website you can link to other library catalogs to do a wider search for books.
  • Local libraries: for ex. St. Lawrence Univ.
  • All SUNY libraries: use the SUNY Union Catalog
  • All major U.S. and some foreign libraries: use WorldCat

Crumb Library Guide. DT (trithadi@potsdam.edu) (x3311)