Requirements for the Classics Major

Major Requirements – 75 Total Credits

Core Courses – Required 18 credits

18 credits in Greek (GRK) and/or Latin (LATN) above the 102 level. This may include courses designated CLAS-F (and in some cases HIST-F). Please note that 101 and 102 do NOT count toward the 30 additional credits below unless they are in a second classical language.

Classical Civilization Courses – Required 18 credits

One course from each of the three groups below.

Historical Analysis – (6 credits)

  • CLAS 145: Ancient Greek Religion (not offered 2025-26)
  • CLAS 226: 49 BC in Real Time: Outbreak of Roman Civil War (not offered 2025-26)
  • CLAS 227: Athens, Sparta, and Persia (not offered 2025-26)
  • CLAS 229: The Collapse of the Roman Republic
  • CLAS 230: Hellenistic Greek History
  • CLAS 240: Rome: From Village to Superpower (not offered 2025-26)
  • HIST 131: Saints and Society in Late Antiquity (not offered 2025-26)

Archaeological Analysis – (6 credits)

  • ARCN 222: Experimental Archaeology and Experiential History and Lab
  • ARTH 120: Art and Archaeology of Ancient Egypt and West Asia
  • CLAS 123: Greek Archaeology and Art (not offered 2025-26)
  • CLAS 124: Roman Archaeology and Art (not offered 2025-26)
  • CLAS 200: Greece at a Crossroads: History, Landscape, and Material Culture

Literary Analysis – (6 credits)

  • CLAS 111: Greece at a Crossroads: History, Landscape, and Material Culture Program: Myth and Reception
  • CLAS 112: The Epic in Classical Antiquity: Texts, Contexts, and Intertexts
  • CLAS 116: Greek Drama in Performance
  • CLAS 121: Meeting an Anti-Hero: Philoctetes
  • CLAS 133: A Day in the Life of Classical Athens
  • CLAS 214: Gender and Sexuality in Classical Antiquity (not offered 2025-26)
  • GRK 221: Meeting an Anti-Hero: Philoctetes by Sophocles (not offered 2025-26)
  • GRK 255: Euripides’ Alcestis (not offered 2025-26)
  • LATN 232: Roman Republic in Code Red: Sallust to the Rescue

Senior Seminar Course – Required 6 credits

Required to be taken in the senior year.

  • CLAS 384: Food and Foodways of the Ancient Mediterranean (not offered 2025-26)
  • CLAS 386: Classical Myth: Theory, Function, Afterlife
  • CLAS 387: Expectasne Patronum? Magical Practice in the Greco-Roman World (not offered 2025-26)

Additional Elective Courses – Required 30 credits

Additional elective courses in the general area of Classical Civilization (CLAS), Latin (LATN), or Greek (GRK), two of which must be at the 200 level or above.

  • Up to 12 of these credits may be from a related department (History, Philosophy, Art History, Archaeology, Political Science, Religion), subject to adviser approval.
  • 300-level Seminar courses, if taken before the senior year, may count toward these 30 additional credits.

Senior Integrative Exercise – Required 3 credits

Additional Departmental Notes

The College language requirement may be satisfied by completion with a grade of at least C- in any of the Greek or Latin languages numbered 204 or above.

The Classics Departments of Carleton College and St. Olaf College cooperate in a program under which students of either college may elect certain courses on the other campus. This option is especially appropriate for upper level language courses not offered at Carleton. Carleton students should register for St. Olaf courses through the inter-registration process.

The Minor in Archaeology will interest many students who are attracted to ancient civilization.