Whenever you refer to another person's work in your own essay, dissertation or article you must acknowledge them and give full details of your source. You risk being accused of plagiarism if you fail to do so.
Classics requires two different citation styles. Harvard referencing is used for modern sources, such as modern books, articles and websites. Oxford footnote referencing is used to cite ancient texts.
For general information on referencing, including an explanation of different citation systems, and guidance on citing specific types of publication, see our Citing references guide.
For help with citing specific types of publication contact your librarian.
For advice on using references in your work, and how to use them to support your arguments, consult the guidance on the Study Advice website or make an appointment with them.
The use of clear and accurate references is a Classicist’s or Ancient Historian’s stock-in-trade. It is also the best way to protect yourself against charges of plagiarism. Apart from common sense argument and generally acknowledged fact, everything that you say in an essay will have come from somewhere – either an ancient or modern source – and must be credited.
The Classics Department uses a hybrid style of citations. Ancient sources should be cited according to the Oxford referencing system, while modern sources should be cited according to the Harvard referencing system.
Given the impact of ChatGPT and other writing tools based on Generative Artificial Intelligence, students are reminded that their work must be referenced and drawn from their own research. This means that all quotes, paraphrased content, factual details and applied arguments must be referenced clearly in line with the departmental style guide and all in-text citations/footnotes should include page numbers. This allows lecturers/tutors to check and cross-reference assessed work. Students must be able to demonstrate where the information used in their work comes from, particularly if reading is drawn from outside of the module reading list.
Ancient texts are cited using the Oxford referencing style.
When citing an ancient literary work in your essay you need to be as specific as possible when referring to the exact line, paragraph or reference of the work you are citing.
Verse authors should be referred to by the title of the work, book or poem number (as necessary) and line number. Titles of any works are italicised.
e.g. Homer, Iliad 6.332-45 [= book 6, lines 332 to 345].
e.g. Euripides, Helen 420-2 [= lines 420 to 422].
Prose authors are referred to by title, book number (if applicable) and chapter number and sometimes by sections within a chapter.
e.g. Plutarch, Pericles 32.2 [= Plutarch, Life of Pericles, chapter 32, section 2].
Sometimes you may see references that use abbreviations e.g. Hom. Il. 6.332-45. = Homer, Iliad 6.332-45. A list of abbreviations can be found in Liddell and Scott's Greek-English lexicon (see link below) or Lewis and Short's Latin dictionary (Call Number: DICTIONARIES--DIC 473.2-LEW).
If you find a translation that does not include line numbers for verse authors, check your module convenor's instructions to see whether using such a translation is allowed in your module. If it is okay to use that translation, then try to give as much information as possible - specify the translation you are using and the page number.
After you have referred to an author and work the first time you need only refer to the line or book/chapter afterwards.
If there is only one extant work by an author you can just refer to the author and the line or book/chapter when referencing the work in-text, e.g. Herodotus 6.32.1 [= Herodotus, book 6, chapter 32, section 1].
Reference in the bibliography:
Euripides, Helen, with introduction, translation and commentary by Peter Burian (Oxford 2007)
For further guidance on using the Oxford referencing style, click here.
If you want to cite a source you found in a sourcebook, you should cite it in-text like this:
Sourcebooks should be cited in the bibliography according to the following pattern:
Ancient texts are cited using the Oxford referencing style.
Citation in the text: "....." (Euripides, Helen 420-2)
Reference in the bibliography:
Euripides, Helen, with introduction, translation and commentary by Peter Burian (Oxford 2007)
Modern texts are cited using the Harvard referencing style.
Book with a single author
Citation in the text: Wray (2001: 143) stated that….. or “…Roman man's subjective experience" (Wray 2001: 143).
Reference in the bibliography:
Wray, D. (2001) Catulus and the poetics of Roman manhood. Cambridge.
Book chapter
Citation in the text: “….. (Dillon 2012: 266).”
Reference in the bibliography:
Dillon, S. (2012) 'Female portraiture in the Hellenistic period'. In S.L.James and S.Dillon (edd.), A companion to women in the ancient world, 263-277. Malden, MA.
Please note that the journal issue number within a volume (if needed) is within brackets. Even if your article is online, you should follow the citation style given in the example below. Unless it exists online only, there is no need to give the URL.
Journal article with a single author (print and online)
Citation in the text: ... (Stone 2011: 75)
Reference in the bibliography:
Stone, C.R. (2011) 'Investigating Macedon in medieval England: The St. Albans compliation, the Philippic Histories, and the reception of Alexander the Great', Viator 42 (1), 75-111.
Journal article with single author (online only)
Reference in the bibliography:
Clay, J.S. (1994) 'The plot of the Lysistrata and the hostages of line 244', Electronic Antiquity 1 (7) (accessed 3 March 2019). https://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/ElAnt/V1N7/clay.html
You should avoid citing webpages unless you are clear of their quality and suitability for inclusion in academic work. See the link at the bottom of the page for more information about evaluating webpages.
Where citation of a web-based source is necessary, adopt the following format and citation order in the Bibliography:
Author [if identifiable], (year) 'Title of article [if appropriate]', Name of website editor [if provided], Title of website [in italics], [Date visited] [in square brackets], URL: http: // internet address / remote path [keep as one line].
The citation in the text should be by author and date, as with other sources. In the absence of page numbers, add a line, paragraph or section number.
Citation in the text: “….. (Boedeker 2011: para. 3)
Reference in the bibliography:
Boedeker, D (2011), 'No way out? Aging in the new (and old) Sappho', Ellen Greene and Marilyn Skinner (eds)., Classics@ Volume 4. The Center for Hellenic Studies of Harvard University [Accessed 19 October 2023], https://classics-at.chs.harvard.edu/classics4-deborah-boedeker-aging-in-the-new-and-old-sappho/
Can't identify the author?
If you can identify the organisation responsible for the website, then use their name as the author e.g. Centre for Hellenic Studies. If this is not possible, then use the page title or an abbreviation thereof.
Citation in the text: “….. (Center for Hellenic Studies, n.d.).”
Reference in the bibliography:
Center for Hellenic Studies (n.d.), ‘About us’, Centre for Hellenic Studies [Accessed 10 July 2015] http://chs.harvard.edu/CHS/article/display/5388?menuId=1
Can't tell what date it was created or updated?
Look for an updated date at the foot of the page. If you can’t find one, then use the year you accessed the information.
If you are citing a web site then you should retain a printed copy of that site on that day as the site can be changed without notice.
Material evidence, including inscriptions, are organised into a corpus (plural: corpora), which have been gathered together by scholar(s), often through many years of work. There are many corpora relevant to study the ancient world (covering inscriptions, papyri, coins and many more things), and new ones appear from time to time. Because these corpora are used widely in the field, scholars and students refer to them by standard abbreviations instead of giving full bibliographic details each time. This makes your reference short, precise, and universally recognisable.
In text/footnotes: cite using the standard corpus abbreviation and number (no need for a full bibliography entry unless you are discussing the publication itself), e.g.:
AE = L’Année Épigraphique
CIL = Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum
IG = Inscriptiones Graecae
ILS = Inscriptiones Latinae Selectae
SEG = Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum
Bibliography: You do not need to put every corpus abbreviation into the bibliography. Instead, you list the major corpora you used once in the bibliography (under modern works), giving their full details. E.g.
This means you can cite only by abbreviation + number in the text.
In text: As with inscriptions, when you reference a coin in the text of an assignment, you do not usually describe it in full (“a denarius of Augustus with Victory on the reverse”) because there might be a lot of coins conforming to this design. Instead, you point to its entry in a standard catalogue using an abbreviation + volume + number. E.g.:
A quick way to find RIC numbers in particular can be via Online Coins of the Roman Empire (OCRE). Coins are labelled according to their RIC numbers but other corpora are not included.
Bibliography: As with inscriptions, you provide the major corpora you used once in the bibliography (under modern works), again providing their full details. E.g.
Each of these corpora have many volumes, so it is useful to check you are citing the right one!
In text/footnotes: give a clear identifier: museum name + inventory number. E.g.:
Bibliography: If citing only the object itself, you usually do not put it in the bibliography (the reference in text is sufficient). If citing the publication/catalogue of the object, then that goes in the bibliography as a modern work.
Examples of catalogues include:
Many literary texts from the Classical world have survived only in fragments, and these, like inscriptions, are collected in corpora. Often you will find fragments cited using the fragment number and the name(s) – or abbreviation thereof – of the editor(s) of the main edition. E.g.:
If you did want to use such citations, they would show up in your bibliography like this:
Merkelbach, R. and West, M. (1967) Fragmenta Hesiodea. Oxford.
Snell, B. and H. Maehler (1964-1975) Pindari Carmina cum Fragmentis. Leipzig.
In other instances, literary fragments are cited using an abbreviation of the corpus title. An example you may use is the corpus Fragmente der Griechischen Historiker, or ‘fragments of the Greek historians’. The original German edition was begun by Felix Jacoby, but the corpus has been updated in the form of Brill’s New Jacoby, which is available as Jacoby online. This resource provides the fragments in the original Greek and in English translation, and also explanatory notes and commentary. Each historian has a number.
Individual fragments are cited as the following example:
FGrH 3 F 21 (= fragment 21 of the historian no. 3 (Pherekydes) in Fragmente der Griechischen Historiker).
Bibliography: If citing only the fragment itself, you usually do not put it in the bibliography (the reference in text is sufficient). If citing the modern commentary on the fragment, then that goes in the bibliography as a modern work, as in the following example:
Morison, William S. (2023) ‘Pherekydes of Athens (3).’ In Jacoby Online. Brill's New Jacoby - Second Edition, Part I, edited by I. Worthington. Leiden. https://doi.org/10.1163/1873-5363_bnj2_a3.
Please note: Jacoby Online gives you a helpful ‘Cite this’ rubric with every entry.
Further information about Generative Artificial Intelligence and university study from the Study Advice team:
AI outputs should be cited according to the Harvard referencing system.
As AI outputs are unique to each user, they are treated as “personal correspondences.”
In-text citation:
(Developer, AI Tool Name and Model Number, version, personal communication, generated Day Month Year).
In-text citation example:
(OpenAI, ChatGPT 3.5, 3 August 2023 version, personal communication, generated 18 September 2023).
As you cannot directly link to a specific AI output in your citation, you must take a screenshot of the outputs you use for your records instead.
You do not need to include personal correspondences in your bibliography. Instead, pair your initial prompts and screenshots of your cited AI outputs and attach them to the end of your assignment as an appendix.
Appendix example:
Appendix 1: OpenAI, ChatGPT 3.5, 3 August 2023 version, personal communication, generated 18 September 2023.
Prompt: “Summarise the events of the Peloponnesian War in one paragraph.”
If you examine an AI-generated image as part of your assignment, indicate the image as a figure at the end of the sentence in the first instance. Then, insert the AI-generated image as a figure and include all relevant information about its generation in the figure caption.
In-text reference:
The representation of Apollo has evolved from the Classical Period to the Renaissance, and the inherent biases of his image are clear in how AI image generation presents him (Figure 1).
Image caption:
Figure #: Developer, AI Tool Name and Model Number, version, ‘Prompt’, generated Day Month Year.
Figure 1: OpenAI, DALL-E-2, 6 April 2022 version, ‘Apollo firing the arrow over the Greeks in the Iliad, renaissance style painting’, generated 18 September 2023.
AI-generated images are a non-recoverable source, so should be included in an appendix at the end of your assignment, alongside any other uses of AI tools. This appendix entry should include a screenshot of the entire AI output.
Appendix example:
Appendix 1: OpenAI, DALL-E-2, 6 April 2022 version, personal communication, generated 18 September 2023.
Prompt: “Apollo firing the arrow over the Greeks in the Iliad, renaissance style painting.”
If you used an AI tool to help you generate ideas, plan your process, or expedite research, you must acknowledge how you used the tool, even if you do not include any AI-generated content in the assignment.
To do this, insert a footnote at the end of the first sentence of your assignment and describe what tools were used and how they were used to support the completion of your assignment. Ensure to include the developer and model version in parentheses next to the name of the AI tool used.
Example footnote:
1 The writing of this assignment is my own, and I take responsibility for all errors. During the preparation of this assignment, Perplexity (Perplexity AI, 9 August 2023 version) was used to gather articles for preliminary research into this research question.
As with citing AI outputs above, it is good practice to keep screenshots of the AI outputs you use for preparing your assignments for your records. These, paired with their prompts, can be attached to the end of your assignment as an appendix if requested by your module convenor.
If you discuss an AI tool as a program in your assignment, it should be cited according to the citation system for “computer software.”
In-text citation:
(Developer Year of Publication of Model).
In-text citation example:
“… (Microsoft 2023).”
Bibliography entry:
Developer (Year of Release), AI Tool Name and Model Number, version, computer software, URL.
Bibliography entry example:
Microsoft (2023), Bing AI, 25 August 2023 version, computer software, https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/bing?form=MA13FV.
Since this instance does not use any AI-generated outputs, you do not need to include an additional entry for this citation in an appendix.
All references cited in the text should be listed in the bibliography. They should be listed in alphabetical order by author.
Ancient texts should be listed separately from modern texts.
For ancient works, full details should be given in the following order:
author, title of work [in italics]; editor or translator's name(s), place of publication and date.
For modern works, full details should be given in the following order:
author, (year) [in brackets] 'title of article or book chapter' [in inverted commas, if appropriate], title of journal or book [in italics]; volume and part number [if a journal], place of publication [if a book] then pages [if appropriate].
When you do your dissertation you could consider using EndNote to manage your references. This bibliographic management package can be used to store references, and then insert the citation in your Word document, automatically building the bibliography for you in the correct style.
Find out more on our EndNote webpages:
For information on other options for electronic management of your references see our guide to Managing references:
