Research guides: HIST: History: HIST 290: Greek &amp; Roman History

Research Assignment – Primary source key requirements

Choose a written primary source as the basis for your essay topic.

Open access primary source collections

Fordham University Internet Ancient History Sourcebook
The Internet Classics Archive
Mainly works from Greek and Roman authors (some Chinese and Persian) translated to English.
Perseus Digital Library
Open Greek and Latin Perseus Digital Library Scaife Viewer. Features 2,427 works in 3,209 editions and translations (1,656 in Greek and 636 in Latin).
Project Gutenberg: Books in Classical Antiquity
Project Gutenberg is an online library of free ebooks. the "Books in Classical Antiquity" section contains 108 free ebooks in translations from the mid-1900s and earlier.

Sourcebooks at Camosun Library

Ancient Greek Laws: A Sourcebook by Ilias Arnaoutoglou, 1998
This sourcebook presents a collection of ancient Greek laws, situated in their legal and historical contexts, and analyzed with Greek literature and epigraphical testimonies. Legislation is divided into three areas: the household - marriage, divorce, inheritance, adoption, sexual offences and personal status; the market-place - trade, finance, sale, coinage and leases; and the state - constitution, legislative process, public duties, colonies, building activities, naval forces, penal regulations, religion, politics and inter-state affairs.
Arete: Greek Sports From Ancient Sources by Stephen G. Miller, foreword by Paul Christesen, 2012
This book includes a trove of ancient sources: Plutarch on boxing, Aristotle on the pentathlon, Philostratos on the buying and selling of victories, Vitruvius on literary competitions, and Xenophon on female body building. Arete offers readers an absorbing lesson in the culture of Greek athletics from the greatest of teachers, the ancients themselves, and demonstrates that the concepts of virtue, skill, pride, valor, and nobility embedded in the word arete are only part of the story from antiquity.
The Government of the Roman Empire: A Sourcebook by Barbara Levick, 2000
"The Government of the Roman Empire" concentrates on the administration of the Roman empire, using the evidence of contemporary writers and historians. Specifically designed for students, with extensive cross-referencing, bibliographies and introductions and explanations for each item.
Magic, Witchcraft, and Ghosts in the Greek and Roman Worlds by Daniel Ogden, 2002
This book presents three hundred texts in new translations, along with brief but explicit commentaries. Alongside descriptions of sorcerers, witches, and ghosts in the works of ancient writers, it reproduces curse tablets, spells from ancient magical recipe books, and inscriptions from magical amulets. Authors include the well known (Sophocles, Herodotus, Plato, Aristotle, Virgil, Pliny) and the less familiar, and extend across the whole of Greco-Roman antiquity.
The Roman Household: A Sourcebook by Jane F. Gardner & Thomas Wiedemann, 1991
With the help of a wide variety of source material, particularly legal documents and inscriptions, some of it made available for the first time in English, this book illustrates the activities associated with the household, demonstrating the different and frequently conflicting roles and moral values expected from its various members: male and female, old and young, freedman and slave.
Spectacles in the Roman World: A Sourcebook by Siobhán McElduff
A collection of primary sources on Roman games and spectacles in their various forms, created for a second-year undergraduate class on spectacles in Greece and Rome at the University of British Columbia (BCcampus Open source textbook).
Women and the Law in the Roman Empire: A Sourcebook on Marriage, Divorce and Widowhood by Judith Evans Grubbs, 2002
This sourcebook presents legal material of the imperial period - from Augustus (31 BCE - 14 CE) to the end of the western Roman Empire (476 CE), incorporating both pagan and Christian eras, and explaining the rights women held under Roman law, the restrictions to which they were subject, and legal regulations on marriage, divorce and widowhood.
Women's Life in Greece and Rome: A Source Book in Translation by Mary R. Lefkowitz; Maureen B. Fant, 2016
Call Number: HQ 1127 W653 2016
This sourcebook examines the public and private lives and legal status of Greek and Roman women. The texts represent women of all social classes, from public figures remembered for their deeds (or misdeeds), to priestesses, poets, and intellectuals, to working women, such as musicians, wet nurses, and prostitutes, to homemakers.
Women's Religions in the Greco-Roman World by Ross Shepard Kraemer, 2004
This book is a collection of translations of primary texts relevant to women's religion in Western antiquity, from the fourth century BCE to the fifth century CE.

Research Assignment – Secondary source key requirements

Find at least four, academic secondary sources (books or articles) related to your primary source.
As a guideline, look for books and articles written by historians and are published by university presses or academic journals.
The secondary sources will all:
- have footnotes,
- be published after 1980 and,
- provide at least 15 pages of information on the specific resource you are analyzing.

Academic resources at the Camosun Library

Camosun library subscribes to a number of databases containing collections of scholarly articles, book chapters, and other resources related to history topics. Use the databases below to find scholarly and peer-reviewed articles and book chapters.

Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new window
All topics, academic focus, some Canadian content.

Historical Abstracts with Full Text
Covers the history of the world (excluding the US and Canada) from 1450 to the present, including world history, military history, women's history, history of education, and more.

Humanities Abstracts This link opens in a new window
History, literature, philosophy articles.
JSTOR This link opens in a new window
An archive of over 200 academic journals in the fields of Arts and Humanities. Often this is the only place to find these journals. Quality resource for historical research. Includes ARTstor content as of July 2024.
Social Sciences Full Text This link opens in a new window
All social science topics (anthropology, sociology, political science, psychology, criminology articles); mainly journals, some magazines.

To cast your research net wider, start by using the Single Search search tool. Use the advanced search option to add and experiment with keywords. Refine your search using the publication date, source type, and subject tools located on the left hand side of your search results.

HIST: History

History Department Style Guide

Interlibrary Loans (ILLs)

Camosun Single Search