Classics

The academic study of ancient Greece and Rome extends from before the classical period into late antiquity (roughly mid-second millennium BCE to the mid-6th century CE) , and includes a vast and interdisciplinary body of information that includes history, archaeology, art, language, literature, religion, and philosophy. Some Classicists also study the reception of Greek and Latin cultures in later periods, such as the Renaissance or Enlightenment, or by cultures other than European.  The collections and resources for Classics at Brown will also be of interest to readers in other departments and programs such as Religious Studies, Philosophy,  the Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World, Medieval Studies, and Renaissance & Early Modern Studies. Conversely, researchers interested in Classical studies may find it useful to look at the guides for those subjects as well. 

This is by no means a comprehensive guide to all the resources available for the study of classics. However, this guide does contain many carefully curated resources that can serve as entry points to classics. The menu on the left hand side of this guide can be used to navigate the resources available here. All these resources are grouped by the following:

• Reference Sources: Background information generally comes from reference sources, which provide a scholarly discussion that summarizes and synthesizes secondary sources. These sources provide important background and contextual information on your subject. Reference sources include bibliographies, dictionaries, encyclopedias, and handbooks. You can use this type of source to help narrow your research topic, find data to support your thesis, and identify keywords and main ideas to use as search terms.
• Secondary sources - A secondary source is a scholarly discussion based on primary sources. Typically, a secondary source contains original research. Secondary sources include articles, blogs, books, lectures, podcasts, and scientific reports. Secondary sources are useful for in-depth analysis of your topic and for learning about scholarly perspectives on your topic.
• Primary sources - A primary source is a document, image, artifact, or dataset that provides first-hand testimony or direct evidence concerning the object of research. Primary sources may include, but are not limited to, artwork, correspondence, diaries, interviews, literary texts, material artifacts, newspapers, speeches, statistics, and videos. Primary sources are useful for providing evidence on your topic.