Studying the Ancient Greek and Roman Worlds at Berkeley

The department teaches and studies the languages, cultures, histories, philosophies, literatures, art, and material culture of the ancient Greek and Roman worlds. It is home to exciting and welcoming undergraduate major programs and maintains a rich and varied schedule of undergraduate courses, including a full curriculum of ancient Greek and Latin language instruction. Its PhD programs in Classics and Classical Archaeology are enriched every year by the arrival of new future leaders in the study of the ancient world, and for generations their graduates have gone on to renew or remake their fields. Itself a teeming center of intellectual vitality on campus, the department is affiliated with internationally important research units directed by its faculty, including the Center for the Tebtunis Papyri, the Sara B. Aleshire Center for Greek Epigraphy, and the Nemea Center for Classical Archaeology. The department organizes many events of interest and hosts many visits, most notably the storied annual Jane K. Sather Professorship of Classical Literature.


Featured Courses

Summer 2023
TBA

Designed for anyone who wishes to acquire reading knowledge of ancient Greek; replaces 2+ semesters of traditional study.


Summer 2023
TBA

Designed for anyone who wishes to acquire reading knowledge of Latin; replaces 2+ semesters of traditional study.

News

The Department is delighted to report that Classics PhD student Dylan Kenny has accepted a tenure-track position in ancient Greek language and literature in the Department of Classics at the University of Cincinnati, to begin in Fall 2023. Congratulations, Dylan!

Events

Apr
7
2023

Dionysius of Halicarnassus on the limits of sensory knowledge. A lecture by Sean Gurd.

Apr
11
2023
The consistory seems to condense in itself many traits of the image of late antique imperial power: centralised, despotic, hieratic and almost inaccessible. Such a vision of the consistorium is, to a large extent, a historiographical myth, one that it can be instructive to dismantle.
Apr
12
2023
The late Roman court seems to be characterised by an opposition unknown to republican Rome and the high empire: between the sovereign who sits on the throne, and all the others who stand. The study of exceptions to this practise can tell us much about Late Antique society and its social structure.
Apr
20
2023

How did Romans mitigate the risks of childbirth? This talk will explore the communities marshaled to protect birthing people and their offspring. Amulets—whether made of stone, plants, or something else—will be our primary focus, as they reveal a networked approach to uncertainty by drawing together human and nonhuman agencies.

May
11
2023
Conference on Ancient Comedy: Reading, Theory, and the Boundaries of the Classical organized by Mario Telò and Sarah Nooter (University of Chicago)

Fall 2022 Sather Lectures

Fall 2022 Sather Lectures Posters