The Classics

The Department of Classics offers instruction across the range of Greco-Roman civilization from the Bronze Age through Byzantium and medieval Europe to modern Greece, and in all major areas, including language, linguistics, literature, archaeology, history, philosophy, and religion. Undergraduates may pursue a Concentration and Secondary Field.

Director of Undergraduate Studies: Naomi Weiss

Undergraduate Program Coordinator: Ryan Pasco

Gateway Courses

Spring 2024

CLS-STDY 97b: Introduction to the Ancient Roman World
Kathleen Coleman

This course traces Roman history from the earliest settlement along the Tiber to the shift of power eastwards in late antiquity. We will study Roman authors, coins, papyri, graffiti, mosaics, brick stamps, curse tablets, and anything else that gives us access to Roman thought and culture. Amongst others, we will encounter gladiators, doctors, musicians, and hairdressers (sample occupations practiced by women, as well as men!). The course includes hands-on sessions with the collections of Houghton Library and the Harvard Art Museums.

CLS-STDY 154: Ancient Global Economies
Irene Soto Marín

This course will introduce students to the complex and sophisticated nature of ancient economies, with a particular focus on the global connections of well-known ancient polities such as the Assyrian, Egyptian, Macedonian, Roman, and Palmyrene Empires. Students will learn how to dissect historical and analytical narratives that utilize quantitative and qualitative data sets through case studies, such as the economic logistics of the military conquests of Alexander, the constructions of the pyramids of Old Kingdom Egypt, the price of urban development of the city of Rome, and the capital investment required for the long-distance trade along the Silk Roads and Indo-Roman trade routes.

CLS-STDY 172: Romanness after Rome
Jan Ziolkowski

This course explores major issues relating to Rome and Romanness, from antiquity to the present day. Many Romes have existed. At the beginning, why were the Romans called Roman? What was it to be a Roman citizen? From Late Antiquity on, why was there a New Rome or Second Rome? Were the Byzantines Roman? Why was the Church Roman Catholic, the Holy Roman Empire Roman? What makes Roman law Roman? Why was there a Third Rome? What is Romanness today?

CLS-STDY 180: The Seleucid Empire
Paul Kosmin

The Seleucid Empire was the successor kingdom to Alexander the Great’s conquests in Asia, extending, at its height, from the borders of India to Bulgaria and from Armenia to Bahrein. It was the largest and most powerful state of the Hellenistic world. This course will explore the formation, functioning, and collapse of the Seleucid empire, paying particular attention to colonization, city-founding, and the architecture of power; the nature of Hellenistic kingship, ruler cult, and charismatic authority; cultural, literary, and religious innovations; interactions with non-Greek states, including the kingdoms of northern India; and resistance movements, including the Maccabean Revolt.

CLS-STDY 184: Classical Antiquity and the Legacy of Slavery at Harvard
Jared Hudson and Irene Peirano Garrison

This course investigates the historical ties between the study of Classical antiquity at Harvard and slavery, and the complex and enduring legacies of those ties. Areas of examination include the relationship between the ideologies of slavery in the ancient and modern worlds, the teaching of ancient languages and literatures and the historical development of the institutions of slavery, the evolving history and politics of classical and Judeo-Christian antiquity in the Harvard curriculum, and the role of the study of antiquity in abolition and other forms of resistance. Students will use University collections to develop original, public-facing research projects over the course of the semester.

FYSEMR 65n: Fashion in the Ancient Mediterranean World
Irene Soto Marín

This seminar explores the manufacture, trade, and social function of objects of fashion in the Ancient Mediterranean World. Clothing, cosmetics, and hair performed significant functions as markers of status and class, as well as social identity. Furthermore, the manufacture of jewelry, perfumes, and makeup in antiquity represented some of the most highly skilled ancient industries, and textiles and garments were the most widely traded and highly valued goods in antiquity. We will encounter how both men and women were subject to fashion in personal adornment.

GENED 1110: Classical Mythology: Myth in Antiquity and Today
Rachel Love

The myths of ancient Greece and Rome embody both our worst nightmares and our most fabulous fantasies. Heroism, happy endings, and everlasting love blend with disturbing themes of parricide, cannibalism, incest, misogyny, and unthinkable violence. The resulting stories have fascinated generations of artists, writers, and thinkers, and this course will serve as an introduction to this distant but strangely familiar world. We will move from the very first works of Greek literature through the classic Greek tragedies and the Roman reinventions.
Along the way, we will ask these fundamental questions: What is “mythology”? What can these ancient stories tell us about ourselves as human-beings, and why are they still so resonant thousands of years later? And how does mythology both ancient and modern continue to reflect and shape our world view today? We will use examples from classical mythology to see how a society can re-remember and revise traditional stories to fit changing cultural circumstances and political ideologies. Our discussions will consider ancient rationalizations of myth, psychoanalytic approaches to myth, the use of myth in politics, and the reception of classical myth in the modern world.  

GENED 1168: Tragedy Today
Naomi Weiss

In Athens in the fifth century BCE, thousands would gather at the theater to grapple, through the medium of tragedy, with questions such as: What happens if a woman is in power? How different are we from foreigners? What happens to the victims of war? 2500 years later, Greek tragedies are all around us, in films, on TV, and in plays, novels, music, and social media. In this course, we will explore how and why such an old artform is still used to explore a wide range of contemporary issues, from systemic racism to religious intolerance to trans rights to the benefits and dangers of AI.