LibGuides: Classics: Background Information

About Background Information

Finding background information at the beginning of your research will help you find pertinent scholarly sources and write a more convincing argument. Background information in reference books or databases can provide:

Introduction to key issues
Major dates and events
Quick definitions or descriptions
Keywords and subject-specific vocabulary terms that can be used for database searches
Bibliographies that lead to additional resources.

For Classics

e-Reference

The Oxford Classical Dictionary Online is a continuously updated, electronic version of an authoritative reference work on the Greco-Roman world.

These databases below allow you to search across entries from hundreds of scholarly encyclopedias, dictionaries, and handbooks at once. If you prefer print, many of these books can be found using LINUS, the library catalog.

Oxford Classical Dictionary This link opens in a new window
Subjects: Classics and Archaeology, Theological Studies, History
Description: Scholarly encyclopedia containing full text. Mainly focused on ancient Greece, Rome, and related parts of the Mediterranean region and Ancient Near East. Each entry includes a bibliography.
Contents: Encyclopedia

Blackwell Companions to Ancient World
Book series of collected essays by different authors. Essays provide a good introduction to scholarship on a subtopic and provide references to important scholarly books and articles in that area. Many are available as e-books.

Oxford Handbooks This link opens in a new window
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Subjects: MANY
Description: General e-book collection containing full text. Focuses on Humanities, Social Sciences, and Business disciplines.
Contents: Book Chapters; E-books
Oxford Reference This link opens in a new window
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Subjects: MANY
Description: General encyclopedia containing full text.
Contents: E-books; Encyclopedias

Print Reference

Brill's New Pauly : Encyclopaedia of the Ancient World : Antiquity
Call Number: REF DE5 .N3513 2002
Civilizations of the Ancient Near East by Sasson, J.M. (ed.)
Call Number: REF DS57 .C55 1995

Find other print or e-reference books (Library catalog search)
To find other reference books about classics, add your own keywords to this custom search in LINUS, the library catalog. The library's collection includes many reference works that focus on specific civilizations, aspects of the ancient world, and time periods, like ancient Near Eastern mythology and Greek literature.

Maps/Atlases

Locate historical places and basic information about them using these atlases of the ancient world.

Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman world
Call Number: ATLAS CASE G1033 .B3 2000
Historical Atlas of the Ancient World (Brill's New Pauly series)
Call Number: REF DE5 .N3813 2007 Suppl v.3
This new atlas of the ancient world illustrates the political, economic, social and cultural developments in the ancient Near East, the Mediterranean world, the Byzantine Empire, the Islamic world and the Holy Roman Empire from the 3rd millennium BC until the 15th century AD. The atlas has 170 large color maps that document the main historical developments. Each map is accompanied by a text that outlines the main historical developments with bibliographies.

Pleiades
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Online, searchable gazetteer or enhanced atlas of the ancient world. Created by a group of scholars and based on the Barrington Atlas.