1642: “Tully or such like classical Latin author”
Harvard’s first rules, printed in New England’s First Fruits (1643), set the bar for admission:
When any Schollar is able to Read Tully or such like classicall Latine Author ex tempore, and make and speake true Latin in verse and prose suo (ut aiunt) Marte, and decline perfectly the paradigmes of Nounes and verbes in the Greeke tongue, then may hee bee admitted into the College, nor shall any claime admission before such qualifications.
“Tully” is Marcus Tullius Cicero. Ex tempore means at sight, without preparing. Suo Marte means “by his own effort,” without help. So a boy had to read Cicero at sight, write and speak Latin, and know his Greek noun and verb endings by heart.
The 1800s: the books themselves
By the 1800s, Harvard’s yearly catalogue listed the exact books a candidate would be examined in.
1859–60. Candidates for the freshman class were examined in:
- Latin: the whole of Virgil, the whole of Caesar’s Commentaries, Cicero’s Select Orations, a Latin grammar (including prosody, the rules of verse), and writing Latin.
- Greek: Felton’s Greek Reader, or the whole of Xenophon’s Anabasis and the first three books of the Iliad (leaving out the Catalogue of Ships in Book II), a Greek grammar, and writing Greek with the accents.
1871–72. The catalogue offered two courses. The first asked for the whole of Virgil, the whole of Caesar’s Commentaries and ten orations of Cicero, with the whole Anabasis (or Goodwin and Allen’s Greek Reader) and Iliad I–III. The second asked for less Latin and Greek (Virgil’s Eclogues and the first six books of the Aeneid, the first four books of Caesar, six orations of Cicero, Anabasis I–IV and Iliad I–II) and much more mathematics. From 1872, students could also try optional exams in Horace’s Odes, three books of Livy, Cicero’s On Old Age, Plato’s Apology and Crito, and Iliad IV–VII.
1880–81. Every candidate was examined on Caesar’s Gallic War I–IV and Virgil’s Eclogues and Aeneid I–IV, plus Latin prose at sight and English sentences put into Latin. In Greek, one choice was the first 111 pages of Goodwin’s Greek Reader (or Anabasis I–IV) with Iliad I and II, lines 1–493. The elective Latin exam included Cicero’s Orations against Catiline and Aeneid V–IX.
| Book | On Harvard’s list | Here |
|---|---|---|
| Caesar, Gallic War | the whole work (1859, 1871); Books I–IV (1871, 1880) | Book I |
| Cicero, orations | Select Orations (1859); ten orations (1871); Against Catiline (1880 elective) | First Oration against Catiline |
| Virgil, Aeneid | the whole of Virgil (1859, 1871); Aeneid I–VI (1871); I–IV, with V–IX elective (1880) | all 12 books, or I–VI |
| Xenophon, Anabasis | the whole work (1859, 1871); Books I–IV (1880) | Book I |
| Homer, Iliad | Books I–III (1859, 1871); I and part of II (1880) | Book I, or all 24 |
How the requirement ended
- 1886–87. A new plan of admission began. A candidate could now offer advanced mathematics and a science in place of either elementary Greek or elementary Latin. Greek, Latin and mathematics still counted for far more than the other subjects.
- 1897–98. The Greek entrance exam became sight translation of simple Attic prose plus a set portion of Xenophon. The Latin exam kept Cicero and Virgil, and added Nepos and Ovid as choices.
- 1935. President James B. Conant proposed dropping Latin as an entrance requirement for A.B. candidates. It caused an uproar, and the Faculty Council decided that the A.B. would still require Latin or Greek.
- 1946. The Faculty voted to end the ancient-language requirement for the A.B., beginning with the Class of 1950. Three years of school Latin (or two of Greek) could be replaced by a third year of mathematics.
A suggested order for teaching yourself
Harvard’s students had years of Latin and Greek in school before they sat these exams. Start with grammar, then go from plain prose to poetry.
Latin
- Grammar: D’Ooge’s Latin for Beginners, all 79 lessons, with the step-by-step guide. Keep Allen and Greenough’s Latin grammar (free online at Dickinson College Commentaries) as your reference.
- Caesar, Gallic War I: plain, orderly prose, and the traditional first author.
- Cicero, First Oration against Catiline: longer sentences and a speaker’s rhythm.
- Virgil, Aeneid I–VI, then the whole poem: verse, free word order and poetic forms.
Greek
- Grammar: the Greek Alphabet lessons, then Machen’s New Testament Greek for Beginners and the Greek and Latin with Jerome companion.
- The Gospel of John: the simplest Greek here, with every word explained in the Gospel Reader.
- Xenophon, Anabasis I: Attic prose, the traditional first classical author. It needs the Attic forms Machen doesn’t teach; Smyth’s Greek Grammar covers them.
- Homer, Iliad I, then the whole poem: an older Greek with forms of its own.
A year of translating is a good goal at any of these steps. The resolution builder can turn one into a day-by-day plan.
Sources
- Harvard College Laws of 1642, from New England’s First Fruits (1643): constitution.org.
- Catalogue of the Officers and Students of Harvard University for 1859–60, 1871–72, 1880–81 and 1887–88, scanned at the Internet Archive: 1859–60, 1871–72, 1880–81, 1887–88.
- The Harvard Crimson: “The New Harvard Catalogue,” December 21, 1886; “New Admission Requirements,” October 26, 1897; “Faculty Backs Single A.B. Degree,” December 4, 1946.
- Harvard Magazine, “Headlines from Harvard’s history” (the 1935 entry).