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Classical Studies

Research guide for sources in ancient history and classical literature

Citing Ancient Sources

What's different about citing ancient sources?

Ancient texts are not cited in footnotes by page number, but rather following a convention using book and chapter (for prose works) or line number (for poetry). This allows you to provide a consistent citation no matter what translation or version you (or your reader) are using. The bibliography should include the specific translation you used.

Abbreviations

Many ancient sources are cited using abbreviations for author names and titles. See the tools below to find appropriate abbreviations.

Chicago Style

Examples in Chicago Style

Footnotes

1 Plut. Caes. 23-24.

Note that unlike most Chicago style footnotes, the elements above are separated by periods rather than by commas. This is the standard for ancient sources; however, if the citation ends with a full name, use a comma. For example:

1 Cass. Dio, 18.72.

Additionally, authors with only one work, like Herodotus, will be cited just by the abbreviation of the author's name and no mention of the title. For example, Herodotus, Histories, book 1 chapter 78 would be cited as:

1 Hdt. 1.78.

Bibliography

Plutarch. Greek Lives: A Selection of Nine Greek Lives. Translated by Robin Waterfield and Philip A. Stadter. Oxford University Press, 1998.

Harvard Style

Harvard Style

There are different versions of the Harvard referencing style, which is an author-date referencing style (as opposed to the footnotes typically used in Chicago style). Chicago does offer an author-date version, which may be useful to refer to.

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