Great Books Program Ancient Roman Year

  • Second year of our four-year Great Books Program
  • High school or college credit options
  • Read & discuss the finest works of Western civilization
  • Our faculty are highly experienced online moderators
  • Weekly, online classes with students from around the world
Each of our Great Books Program online classes begin with a poem and a short discussion of poetry related to the week’s reading. Complete list of poetry can be found in our Great Books Study Guides.

Poetry for Week 3 of the Ancient Roman Year The Roman Road, by Thomas Hardy THE Roman Road runs straight and bare As the pale parting-line in hair Across the heath. And thoughtful men Contrast its days of Now and Then, And delve, and measure, and compare; Visioning on the vacant air Helmeted legionnaires, who proudly rear The Eagle, as they pace again The Roman Road. But no tall brass-helmeted legionnaire Haunts it for me. Uprises there A mother’s form upon my ken, Guiding my infant steps, as when We walked that ancient thoroughfare,

Ancient Roman Year Samples

For this class these Roman year students have read selections from Thomas à Kempis’ “Imitation of Christ.” The conversation opens with a question about similarities and differences between what the students’ have encountered in the Imitation and what they read previously from Plato, Cicero, St. Augustine, Plotinus, Aristotle, and others who gave counsel about how one ought to live. This moderators for this class are Dr. Heather Erb and Mr. Stephen Bertucci.

In Cicero’s work “On Duties” he discusses the question, “Is the immoral ever expedient?”  As the students discuss this question the conversation turns to the topic of a hierarchy of duties; do some duties come before others?  Are one’s obligations to the family primary or are those obligations below obligations to the State?  What is the common good and how is it best achieved?  The class is moderated by Dr. Christopher Morrissey and Mr. Stephen Bertucci.

Choose from one of our three track options. 

High School Credits

Easier workload compared to the AA/BA track Students from any high school or homeschool can join Ages 14 and up

Associate’s Degree Track

90 credits total 48 credits from GBP 12 credits from Theology Online 30 credits from Catholic International University

Bachelor’s Degree Track

120 College Credits 48 credits from GBP 12 credits from Theology Online 60 credits from Catholic International University

Great Books of the Ancient Romans Weekly Readings
Great Books of the Ancient RomansGreat Books of the Ancient Romans to the Early Middle Ages
First SemesterSecond Semester
Weekly ReadingsWeekly Readings
Week 1
Aeneid - Virgil		Week 15
Gospel of Matthew* - New Testament
Week 2
Aeneid - Virgil		Week 16
Gospel of John*, First Epistle of John – New Testament
Week 3
History of Rome* - Livy		Week 17
Acts of the Apostles – New Testament
Week 4
Romulus, Numa Pompilus, Caesar - Plutarch		Week 18
Confessions - Augustine
Week 5
Conquest of Gaul - Caesar		Week 19
Confessions - Augustine
Week 6
Brutus, Cicero - Plutarch		Week 20
Consolation of Philosophy - Boethius
Week 7
On Friendship, On Duties – Cicero		Week 21
City of God* - St. Augustine
Week 8
Annals* - Tacitus		Week 22
City of God* - St. Augustine
Week 9
On the Nature of Things* - Lucretius		Week 23
Qur’an* - Mohammed
Week 10
Discourses*- Epictetus
Meditations* - Marcus Aurelius		Week 24
History of the English People* - Bede
Week 11
Cato the Younger, Antony - Plutarch		Week 25
Sir Galahad - Tennyson
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
Week 12
On the Natural Faculties - Galen		Week 26
Imitation of Christ* - Kempis
Week 13
Enneads* - Plotinus		Week 27
Guide for the Perplexed* - Maimonides
Week 14
Genesis, Job – Old Testament		Week 28
The Divine Comedy: Inferno - Dante
First Semester Oral ExamsWeek 29
The Divine Comedy: Purgatorio - Dante
Week 30
The Divine Comedy: Paradiso - Dante
Second Semester Oral Exams
*Selections

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