appendix b

Oxford syllabus, School of Literae Humaniores

Prescribed authors, Mods (all information taken from Oxford University

Examination Statutes, 1874, 60–4):
Homer (Iliad 1–12 or 13–24, or Odyssey 1–12 or 13–24)
Demosthenes (On the Crown)
Aischylos (Oresteia, or any four plays including the Agamemnon)
Sophokles (any three plays)
Euripides (any four of Bakchai, Hippolytos, Ion, Iphigenia in Tauris, Medea,
Phoenician Women)
Aristophanes (any three of Acharnians, Birds, Knights, Clouds, Frogs or Wasps)
Theokritos
Pindar (Olympian and Pythian Odes)
Plato (Apology and Phaido, with either the Phaidros or the Protagoras)
Thukydides (1–3 or 2–4)
All candidates had to offer Homer and Demosthenes. If two Greek dramatists were
offered, one had to be either Aischylos or Sophokles, reflecting the inferior status of
Euripides. The editions prescribed were:
J. Vahlen (1830–1911), Aristotelis De arte poetica, Berlin: Vahlen, 1874
L. A. Dindorf (1805–71), Homeri Ilias, Oxford University Press, 1856
L. A. Dindorf, Homeri Odyssea, Oxford University Press, 1855
J. G. Baiter (1801–77) and H. Sauppe (1809–93), Demosthenes, Zurich:
S. Hoehrii, 1841–3
C. W. Dindorf (1802–83), Aeschyli tragoediæ superstites et deperditarum frag-
menta, Oxford University Press, 1851
L. Campbell (1830–1908), Sophocles: The Plays and Fragments, Edited with
English Notes and Introduction, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1871
C. W. Dindorf, Euripidis Tragœdiae superstites et deperditarum fragmenta,
Oxford University Press, 1832–40
C. W. Dindorf, Aristophanis Comœdiæ. Accedunt perditarum fabularum frag-
menta, Oxford University Press, 1835–8
H. Fritzsche (1818–78), Zu Theokrit und Virgil, Leipzig: Teubner, 1860

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 198 Appendix B
L. G. Dissen (n.d.), Pindari Carmina quae supersunt, cum deperditorum frag-
mentis selectis, n.p.: Gothae & Co., 1830
J.G. Baiter, J.K. von Orelli (1787–1849) and A. W. Winckelmann (1810–?),
Platonis Opera omnia, Zurich: Meyeri & Zelleri, 1839–54
T. Arnold (1795–1842) and I. Bekker (1785–1871), The History of the
Peloponnesian War: The Text According to Bekker’s Edition with Some
Alterations, Oxford: J. Parker, 1830?–5 (the list in the statutes, p. 63, specifies
only ‘Thucydides. Bekker’, but there were many different editions of
Bekker’s recension, and Arnold’s would have been the most obvious choice)
In Greats, candidates had to offer one period of Greek and one of Roman history. In
Greek history the choice was (all information taken from Oxford University Exami-
nation Statutes, 1878, 19–21, 54–8):
To the end of the Peloponnesian War (404 bc). With Herodotos, Thukydides
and Xenophon’s Hellenika 1–2
From 500 bc to the death of Phillip II of Macedon (336 bc). With Herodotos
5–9, Thukydides, Xenophon’s Hellenika, Demosthenes’ Olynthiacs,
Philippics, On the Embassy and On the Crown
[T]he study of the histories of ancient Greece and Rome shall be taken to include
Classical Archaeology and Art . . . Candidates will be expected to show such a
knowledge of Classical Geography and Antiquities, and of the general history of
Greece and Rome, as shall be necessary for the profitable study of the authors or
periods which they offer [20, 55].
In the philosophy paper Plato’s Republic was prescribed, along with the Protagoras,
Phaidros, Gorgias and Laws 3, 7 and 10, and Aristotle’s Nikomacheian Ethics and
Politics. Candidates had to offer one book of Plato and one of Aristotle, and either one
other book, ancient or modern, or one of the special subjects:
Language:
The Homeric poems, including the literary history of the poems, and a critical
study of Iliad 1–3 or Odyssey 9–11
The lyric and elegaic poets of Greece (with Theodor Bergk’s (1812–81)
Poetae lyrici Graeci, Leipzig: Reichenbach, 1843), including a critical study
of Pindar’s Olympian Odes, with the corresponding period of the history
of Greek literature
Aristophanes and the fragments of the Old Comedy, with the history of the Greek
drama and either a critical study of Clouds, Birds or Frogs, or a special study of
the contemporary history of Athens, with Plutarch’s Life of Perikles
The language and composition of the Nikomacheian Ethics, with a critical study
of the last five books
The text and language of Thukydides, with a study of the mss and principal
various readings
A minute study of comparative philology as illustrating the Greek and Latin
languages

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 Oxford syllabus, School of Literae Humaniores 199
History:
Greek art, with Pausanias 1, 5 and 6 and Pliny’s Natural History 34–6
The geography of the Peloponnese, with Strabo 8
The life of Alexander
The Achaian League
Egyptian history to the Persian conquest, with Herodotos 2 and Diodoros
Sikelios 1
Philosophy:
Aristotle, On the Soul
The philosophy of the Eleatics, Herakleiteans and Megarians, with Plato’s
Theaitetos and Sophist
Stoic and Epicurean philosophy, with the Discourses of Epiktetos and Diogenes
Laertios 10.

The following editions were prescribed, in addition to those prescribed for Mods:
I. Bekker, Aristotelis Opera, Oxford University Press, 1837
J. C. F. Bähr (1798–1872), Herodoti Halicarnassensis Musae, Leipzig: Hahn,
1856–61
J. Schweighäuser (1742–1830), Polybii Megalopolitani Historiarum quidquid
superest, Leipzig: Weidmann, 1789–95
L. A. Dindorf, Xenophontis Historia Graeca, Oxford University Press, 1853
K. H. F. Sintenis (1806–67), Plutarchi Vitae parallelae, Leipzig: Teubner, 1854–9

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