What good books should I read?

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Anonymous

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I'm a sixth form student studying both latin and greek at school and I am hoping to carry on and study classics at Oxford. I would really appreciate some advice on what the best books relating to classical histories/ literature/ philosophy are, so I can read around the subject, as I have no idea where to start. Please help me!
 

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Consularis

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ellie dixit:
I'm a sixth form student studying both latin and greek at school and I am hoping to carry on and study classics at Oxford. I would really appreciate some advice on what the best books relating to classical histories/ literature/ philosophy are, so I can read around the subject, as I have no idea where to start. Please help me!
I can think of three excellent books right off the bat:

"The Oxford Classical Dictionary" - Not for in-depth study, but a good reference nonetheless. It neatly summarizes mythological, historic, literary and philosophical topics from both Latin and Greek culture. If you're looking for "a place to start", I'd say this is definitely a book to have; find it and look up a few topics you may have wondered about. But please, don't stop there.

Ogilvie's "Roman Literature and Society", though published in 1980, is still an excellent survey of Roman lit. Ogilvies primary argument is how the literature of the various period reflected contemporary changes in Roman society (so you get a good dose of history to go with the literary selections) but he is also keenly conscious of the Roman authors' artistic abilities.

For Greece, Botsford, Robinson and Kagan's "Hellenic History" is an indispensible work for the beginner IMHO. I think in fact it's a standard introductory text for college courses on the ancient world.
 
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