Feel Like You're Missing Something?

 Quick Ways from Q to A in the Classics

Compiled by David Sullivan

• Online Encyclopedias, Texts, Maps and Images

• Resources in the Doe Reference Center

• Resources in the Art History/Classics Library

• Bibliography

• Dictionaries, Encyclopedias, Handbooks

• Images

• Atlases

Sources Available Everywhere

L'Année Philologique - UCB only
Online version of L’Année philologique, the standard professional bibliography covering all aspects of the classical world, abstracting about 15,000 books and journal articles a year, including book reviews.  The database currently contains 375,000 bibliographic records for the years 1969 to 2001. Searchable by modern or ancient authors, keyword in abstract or title, and date. The site also contains a useful list of abbreviations for journal titles. To access this database from off campus, please consult the UC Berkeley Library Proxy Server Service  complete information and instructions.

TLG (Thesaurus Linguae Graecae) - UC Only
TLG contains most literary texts written in Greek from Homer to the fall of Byzantium in AD 1453. To access this database from off campus, please consult the UC Berkeley Library Proxy Server Service  complete information and instructions.

American Journal of Archaeology (AJA)
Offers tables of contents and abstracts for issues of the American Journal of Archaeology from 1991-1999, and full text and images (view only) from 2000- .

NESTOR
A bibliography of classical archaeology, 1957-2001.  Search by author, title, journal/book title, date, and publication information.

Gnomon Online
Online version of the quarterly index  of new books and articles from the German review journal Gnomon from 1997-. It is keyword searchable and has a hierarchically arranged topical thesaurus.

Bryn Mawr Classical Review
The exclusively online Bryn Mawr Classical Review. It includes a searchable archive of all issues from 1990-, including books received, and is keyword searchable. Occasionally the scene of lively polemic.

Online Encyclopedias, Texts, Maps and Images 

The Perseus Digital Library
The biggest single online source for information about antiquity. Although it started with a focus on classics, it is now a digital library with collections on many other topics. Hence navigation can be tricky.

The most useful resources for answering classical questions are:

• A collection of Greek and Latin texts in the original language and English translation

• Online versions of the Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites, Platner and Ashby's Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome, and standard, but older Greek-English and Latin-English dictionaries and a collection of commentaries on individual works

• Collections of images of places and of painted vases and coins.

Items are extensively interlinked, and keyword searches combine results from text and image collections. See the home page for a fuller overview.

Other useful sites include:

Classical Mythology Online
Classical Mythology from Oxford University Press. Not yet searchable, but organized by cycles of myth.

Ancient World Mapping Center
Reliable, though large-scale, maps of the Mediterranean region with ancient place names.

The Beazley Archive
The Beazley Archive is the largest single collection of images from Greek vases, and is excellently indexed, not only by painter, vase shape, location, etc. but by subject. A good place to find images from both classical myths and from everyday life, with full scholarly apparatus.

Metis
Metis has a collection of 360° panoramic photos of Greek archaeological sites. Requires QuickTime.

Patrologia Latina
Searchable texts of the Latin church fathers.

Egyptology Resources
An excellent gateway site for Egyptology.

Ancient Near Eastern Resources
A good general guide: bibliography, texts, and translations.

Locally Available Sources

Doe/Moffitt Reference Assistance  
Floor 2,  Doe Library

The Oxford classical dictionary. 3rd rev. ed., 2003.
Doe Reference DE5.O9 2003 
Art History/Classics DE5.O9 2003 
Moffitt Reference DE5.O9 2003
Grad Services DE5.O9 1996 (3rd ed.)

This is the obvious place to start for general queries, as it covers “all aspects of the ancient world”, with short articles in English and very brief but up-to-date bibliography. Besides places, people, gods, works of literature, etc., it has broad topical articles (motherhood; ecology; imperialism; homosexuality; synagogue), as well as essays on modern approaches to the study of the classics, e.g. anthropology. It includes a useful list of authors and the titles of their works and abbreviations for them, as well as of collections of inscriptions and papyri.  No maps or illustrations.

The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites, 1976.
Doe Reference DE59.P71 
Art History/Classics DE59.P71 
Main DE59.P71 

This is not a classical atlas (see below), but an alphabetical series of articles on “sites that show remains from the Classical period,” by which is meant the period from 800 B.C. to about A.D. 500. Thus, Bronze Age sites are excluded, as are all Early Christian sites. Entry by ancient name, followed by modern name; or by modern name if ancient name is unknown. Articles describe the remains found, with brief but full bibliographies for each site. Each site is keyed to one of 16 maps, and each map lists sites by modern country.

The Oxford companion to classical literature. 2nd ed. , 1989.
Doe Reference DE5.H31 1989 
Moffitt Reference DE5.H31 1989 

Intended to provide background information for readers of ancient literature: the composition and contents of individual authors’ works (with reliable summaries and occasionally judgments as to quality), and sketches on myths and mythological characters. Includes a useful timeline situating literary works in their historical context. Gives cryptic guidance on pronunciation of classical names; better for this is The New Century Classical Handbook, DE5N4.

Civilization of the ancient Mediterranean : Greece and Rome , 1988.
Doe Reference DE59.C55 1988 

Unlike the Oxford Classical Dictionary or the Oxford Companion, the focus here is on broad themes, not isolated facts. Essay-length articles by leading American and British scholars on topics like “Roman divination”, “Food and Foodstuffs”, “Book Production” are grouped under headings like “Economy”, “Private and Social Life”, etc. Very brief chronological overviews of Greek and Roman history precede, along with a timeline from 2000 B.C. to A.D. 529 giving historical and literary milestones.

An encyclopedia of the history of classical archaeology , c1996.
Doe Reference DE5.E5 1996 
Art History/Classics DE5.E5 1996

This book bills itself as the first of its kind. Along with articles on individual archaeologists and the history of the excavation of various places, it has pieces on well-known collectors and museums and on the history of famous individual objects like the Portland Vase or the Belvedere Apollo—where they were found, how they ended up where they are now, their importance in art history. Arrangement can be confusing, but it has a full index. Archaeology of neighboring regions like Egypt and the Ancient Near East is excluded.

Art History/Classics Library 
308 Doe Library

The locally mounted CD ROM text and bibliographical databases, including: 

• Bibliotheca Teubneriana Latina

• Latin bibliography 15th century to 2001

• Paulys Realencyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaf : Gesamtregister

• PHI (Packard Humanities Institute)
  

Bibliography 

Bibliotheca scriptorum classicorum, hrsg. von Wilhelm Engelmann.   8. Aufl., umfassend die Literatur von 1700 bis 1878.
Art History/Classics PA29.E6 1880 (v.1-2)

Bibliotheca scriptorum classicorum et graecorum et latinorum. Die literatur von 1878 bis 1896 einschliesslich umfassend.
Art History/Classics PA3.J35 (v. 146, 151, 156, 165)

Bibliographie de l’antiquité classique, 1896-1914
Art History/Classics PA29.L35 

Dix années de bibliographie classique; bibliographie critique et analytique de l’antiquité greco-latine pour la periode 1914-1924. 
Art History/Classics PA29.M38 1969 

L’Année philologique. Paris : Société d’édition “Les Belles Lettres”, 1928
Art History/Classics PA29.A6  (1925-)

The last-named is the standard current bibliography for all areas of classical studies. Includes abstracts. International coverage. Approximately 15,000 entries a year. Not cumulated.

Dictionaries, Encyclopedias, Handbooks   

Supplementing the Oxford Classical Dictionary are:

The Dictionary of classical mythology by Pierre Grimal. Oxford, England; New York, NY: Blackwell, 1987.
Doe Reference  BL715.G7131 1987

The best “one-stop” source for finding out the stories of individual figures in classical mythology.  Under each character, you will find a summary of the related stories. In the back of the book references to the ancient evidence are given. The text is lightly illustrated. There are also family trees and maps to help you understand how the different characters are related and where the stories occurred.

Lexikon der alten Welt, 1965.
Art History/Classics D54.L48 
Doe Reference D54.L48
Especially for art and archaeology (with good maps and illustrations). This also has short bibliography  and some handy addenda: e.g. Greek and Roman proverbs and a list of portraits of famous Greeks and Romans.

Greek literature / edited by P.E. Easterling and B.M.W. Knox.
Art History/Classics PA3052.G73 1985
Main  PA3052.G73 1985
Moffitt PA3052.G73 1985

Latin literature / edited by E.J. Kenney ; advisory editor, W.V. 
Clausen. (The Cambridge History of Classical Literature, I-II)
Art History/Classics PA6003.L3 

These are the current standard handbooks in English. Each is arranged chronologically, and includes as an appendix short entries for major authors (very brief lives, list of known works, including those now lost, editions,  translations into English, and bibliography).

The Cambridge ancient history, ed. 2 and 3. 12 v. plus plates. 
Art History/Classics D57.C26 
Doe Reference D57.C26

Extending from the Paleolithic to A.D. 324 (the year before the Council of Nicaea), and covering all ancient civilizations, not just the Greeks and Romans, this is the standard English handbook. Extensively illustrated with many maps; each volume ends with a chronological table. 

Corresponding in coverage to OCD but on a much vaster scale and with extensive bibliography is:

Paulys Realencyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft. 
Neue Bearbeitung unter Mitwirkung zahlreicher Fachgenossen hrs..., 1957
Art History/Classics  DE5.P3 1957
Doe Reference DE5.P3 1957

Abridged as:

Der Kleine Pauly; Lexikon der Antike, 1964-75.
Art History/Classics DE5.Z54 
Main DE5.Z54 

A new edition is nearing completion which will supplant both as the current standard: 

Der neue Pauly : Enzyklopädie der Antike , c1996 
 (A-Sal; Rezeptions- und Wissenschaftsgeschichte (A-Ky)
Art History/Classics DE5.N48 1996

On a yet vaster scale is the “Handbuch”:

Handbuch der Altertumswissenschaft. 1885-
Art History/Classics PA25.H25 

New volumes, both updates and on new topics, are still coming out. It includes book-length and often standard treatments of topics like Greek and Latin grammar, ancient chronology, the history of classical literature, etc.

Two useful older sources are:

Dictionnaire des antiquités grecques et romaines Ch. Daremberg et 
Edm. Saglio, 1963-1969
Doe Reference DE5.D2 1963 

(heavily illustrated and good for seeing what ancient things looked like—lamps, etc.)

and:

Ausführliches Lexikon der griechischen und römischen Mythologie. 
Hrsg. von W. H. Roscher.  Mit zahlreichen Abbildungen. 1884-1937.
Art History/Classics BL715.R6 
Main BL715.R6
Art History/Classics BL715.R6 Suppl.

For the period A.D. 250-800, see:

Late antiquity : a guide to the postclassical world / G.W. 
Bowersock, Peter Brown, Oleg Grabar, editors, 1999.
Art History/Classics DE5.L29 1999 
Main DE5.L29 1999

Thematic essays (e.g. “Religious Communities”, “Barbarians and Ethnicity”, “Christian Triumph and Controversy” precede a 500 page dictionary consisting of brief articles on the major personalities, events, institutions, practices and beliefs of the period.

Images

Lexicon iconographicum mythologiae classicae (LIMC).
[Library has:  1-8 (Aara-Zodiacus); index 1-2 (c1981-c1999)]
Art History/Classics NX650.M9.L48

Covers mythological figures in great depth. Each entry breaks the legends involving the  character into themes or episodes and their variants (and for gods, distinguishes between  various aspects or local characteristics), and then refers to the ancient depictions of them (vases, sculpture, painting, coins, etc.) Heavily illustrated; multilingual contributions.

The library also houses the main published collections of Greek vase paintings, ancient sculpture, and wall painting.

Atlases

Barrington atlas of the Greek and Roman world, 2000.
Art History/Classics G1033.B3 2000 
Doe Reference G1033.B3 2000 
Earth Sciences G1033.B3 2000 

Perhaps the most complete atlas of ancient place names ever produced. Synchronic (all ancient place names found in a given region are given without distinction as to when they were in use). Well-indexed to go from ancient to modern place names or vice versa. Underlying maps are based on satellite imagery.

For compact collections of maps illustrating events across time in antiquity, see:

Atlas of classical history / edited by Richard J.A. Talbert, 1985.
Main G1033.A833 1985 
Main G1033.A833 1985b 
Main G1033.A8331 1985 
Moffitt DE29.A83 1985 

and:

Atlas of classical history / Michael Grant. 5th ed., 1994.
Earth Sciences G1033.G65 1994