Great Books Ladder · High school · Grade 7–12

Rome and Late Antiquity

Volumes 9 to 16: Lucretius, Virgil, Plutarch, Tacitus, Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius, Plotinus, Nicomachus, Ptolemy, Galen and Augustine, from about 55 BC to AD 430.

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15 topics in 5 units. Builds on The Greeks. Leads to The Middle Ages. Not sure this is the right course? Find your rung.

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Unit 1 Roman Poets

3 topics

Lucretius on atoms and Virgil on farms, shepherds and the founding of Rome.

  1. Lucretius: On the Nature of Things
  2. Virgil: Eclogues and Georgics (being written)
  3. Virgil: The Aeneid (being written)

Unit 2 Lives and Histories

3 topics

Plutarch's paired lives of Greeks and Romans, and Tacitus on the emperors.

  1. Plutarch: Lives of the Greeks (being written)
  2. Plutarch: Lives of the Romans (being written)
  3. Tacitus: The Annals and The Histories (being written)

Unit 3 Stoics and Plotinus

3 topics

A freed slave and an emperor on calm in hard times, and Plotinus on the One.

  1. Epictetus: Discourses (being written)
  2. Marcus Aurelius: Meditations (being written)
  3. Plotinus: The Enneads (being written)

Unit 4 Numbers, Stars and Medicine

3 topics

Nicomachus on number, Ptolemy's astronomy and Galen's medicine.

  1. Nicomachus: Introduction to Arithmetic
  2. Ptolemy: The Almagest
  3. Galen: On the Natural Faculties

Unit 5 Augustine

3 topics

The Confessions, The City of God and On Christian Doctrine.

  1. Augustine: Confessions (being written)
  2. Augustine: The City of God (being written)
  3. Augustine: On Christian Doctrine (being written)
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