CLASSICS 322: The Romans (Spring 2025) : Reference Sources: Start here!

There are many reference collections specific to Classics. The collections below are available online. If you would prefer to use print collections, many of these same resources (along with other similar works) can be found in the Greek and Latin Reading Room in Memorial Library.

• Oxford Classical Dictionary 

  This online reference resource covers many areas of the ancient world, including literature, history, religion, science, and archaeology. It is a great resource for beginning research on broad cultural topics like adultery or magic. Each entry includes full text as well as a bibliography that can point you towards more resources. Note that most entries cover both Greek and Roman eras and cultures.

• Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece and Rome 

  Like the Oxford Classical Dictionary, this resource covers areas like ancient literature, history, archaeology, art, philosophy, science, religion, archaeological sites, artists and artistic themes and materials, philosophers and philosophical schools, scientists and scientific areas, and more. It is a great first-stop when beginning your research. Each entry includes full text as well as a bibliography that can point you towards more resources. Note that most entries cover both Greek and Roman eras and cultures.

• Brill's New Pauly 

  This online resource is an authoritative encyclopedia about the ancient world. It covers more than two thousand years of history, ranging from 2000 BCE to the Europe's medieval period. It features entries on many topics, and it is especially useful for learning more about people and places (both mythological and real) in the ancient world. Each entry includes full text as well as a bibliography that can point you towards more resources.

In addition to the Classics-specific resources listed in the center of this page, the UW-Madison Libraries provide access to many larger, more general reference collections like the ones listed below. These collections include content for many different disciplines and subject areas, and might be useful to you depending on your research topic.

• Cambridge Companions Online 

  This Collection offers more than 450 of the Cambridge Companions for searching and browsing. These are detailed guides to authors, composers, philosophers, genres, various literatures and other fields of study, providing context and analysis for a thorough introduction. The Companions Online include the Cambridge Companions in Literature and Classics and the Cambridge Companions in Philosophy, Religion and Culture and the Companions in Music. Titles are cataloged individually in the library catalog. (Updates ongoing)

• Oxford Reference Online 

  Oxford Reference online: Premium Collection combines rich and scholarly resources with authoritative, quick-reference coverage of the full subject spectrum. Over 130 subject dictionaries, plus the World Encyclopedia, offer unrivalled coverage of everything from art to accountancy, politics to physics, and computing to classics. It includes English dictionaries, and bilingual dictionaries of French, German, Spanish, and Italian. Over 900,000 entries across 25 subjects, including an expanding range of Oxford Companions, and the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations. Please NOTE: Once you do a search on a topic, you can limit your results to only the materials which we license by clicking the checkbox on the left labelled "Show full text results only". If you do not check this Full Text limiting box, your search results will likely contain articles where you can only see the Abstract and Keywords and you are asked to Subscribe or Login to access full text content. Any content with a small "lock" icon next to it is not licensed.