This is the operational website for the Classical Studies department at DePauw University. It contains student- and public-facing resources for displays and reproduction artifacts, our library catalogue, a research hub, information about our alumni/ae, and opportunities for jobs and advanced study.
You may also visit our official DePauw department pages.
You can find our department faculty directory here.
Banner image: ancient theater at Termessos, Türkiye (photo: P. Foss)
The Dept. of Classical Studies owns a number of reproductions of ancient artifacts, as well as a few actual artifacts donated to the university by soldiers returning from Italy after World War II, having found them while digging trenches.
Posts in this section discuss those professional reproductions (some purchased from Children’s Museum of Indianapolis shows), as well as models of buildings and objects made by students for CLST 264: Hellenistic Art and Archaeology over the years.
A key part of carrying out good research is using reliable sources. AI may be able to scrape the internet and compose a summary of what it finds, but it can’t distinguish peer-reviewed scholarship from the claims of “some guy” who posted their opinions somewhere. Here we have collected the best starting places for your online research.
*DPU* marks a resource as accessible (i.e., subscribed) through the DPU library system.
PRIMARY SOURCES (ancient texts):
MATERIAL CULTURE SOURCES (art, artifacts, architecture, and inscriptions):
DePauw Classical Studies alums have highly varied and accomplished careers. Here are a few profiles of recent graduates.
Since 2015, Profs Rebecca Schindler and Pedar Foss have co-operated an archaeological field school in partnership with the Umbra Institute (Perugia, Italy) in the territory of Castiglione del Lago, Umbria (Italy).
The team is exploring the nature and organization of human settlement in the area, especially in the Etruscan and Roman periods. We are currently excavating a massive multi-level structure on the south hillside of the modern town, overlooking Lake Trasimene, hoping to understand the complex relationship amongst ancient peoples and between them and their natural environment.
In 2024, the program will run from 30 May to 13 July; it can be accessed via:
The purpose of this program is to instruct undergraduates in the practicalities and skills of field archaeology, while providing them with essential historical and cultural background knowledge. Several DePauw alums currently engaged in Advanced Study began their careers on this project.
DePauw students can transfer 2 courses worth (= 1.5 total credits) from the Umbra Institute towards their DPU degree. They also receive a $1500 discount on the program cost, and can apply for funding support from the DePauw Asher Funds. Accepted students will also automatically qualify for a small grant from the Department of Classical Studies Mercury Fund (subject to clearance from the University Financial Aid Office).
APPLY through the DePauw Off-Campus Study portal to join the team! The name of the program is: Umbra Institute – Trasimeno Archaeology Field School
DePauw Classical Studies majors have gone on to do amazing and varied things; see the alumni/ae tab above for examples. This is because Classics requires you to develop skills such as: critical thinking, appreciation of historical and cultural context, multi- and inter-disciplinary inquiry, reconstructing patterns from problematic and fragmentary evidence, clear, concise communication, and the capability to teach yourself. Continue below for links to particular opportunities.
There are two general tracks for post-graduate study in Classical Studies:
Either way, the most important thing to do is to gain proficiency and experience with the ancient languages of Latin and Greek. If you have had only a year or two in one of those languages, you will need to take a 1-2 year post-bac (post-baccalaureate) certificate program to improve your linguistic skills. If you have 2-3 years of linguistic training in one or both languages, you might enroll in a masters program. If you have 3-4 years of one language and 1-2 of the other, you will be eligible for most PhD programs. In addition, for archaeology, it is highly advisable to carry out at least 1-2 summers of archaeological fieldwork or museum internships (see the Research tab above).
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As can be seen above (Photograph of the Poseidonia Aulos by Stelios Psaurodakes, now housed in a museum in Paestum), the original instrument was made by drilling sections of deer bone. My replica, however, was made of acacia, as access to deer bone is scarce in the modern day, and acacia is a wood that can be found in the Mediterranean. Furthermore, other auloi have been found that were constructed of wood, making this a reasonable choice for material, such as the Louvre aulos, likely found in Egypt and made of wood, rather than bone.
Continue readingThis photograph on cardboard represents the 6th century BCE figure known as Phrasikleia, a marble kore discovered in 1972 in Merenda, Greece (a suburb of modern Athens). This kore functioned as a funerary monument commemorating the premature death of a woman name Phrasikleia. The inscription on the statue’s base, which had been reused as a column capital for a nearby Byzantine church, declares that it is the sema, marker, of Phrasikleia and that she died before marriage. The full inscription reads:
I am the marker of Phrasikleia. I shall always be called
‘kore,’ this name being given in place of marriage by the gods.
On the left side of the base, the artist signed his work: ᾽Αριστίον Πάρι[ός μ᾽ἐπ]ο[ίε]σε (“Aristion of Paros made me”).
[More coming soon…]
By: Ezekiel Hernández ’25
“Illud vero nonne ita praesens est, ut nutu Iovis optimi maximi factum esse videatur, ut, cum hodierno die mane per forum meo iussu et coniurati et eorum indices in aedem Concordiae ducerentur, eo ipso tempore signum statueretur? Quo collocato atque ad vos senatumque converso omnia [et senatus et vos], quae erant contra salutem omnium cogitata, illustrata et patefacta vidistis.” – Cicero (Cic. Catil. 3.21)
“And is not this fact so present that it appears to have taken place by the express will of the good and mighty Jupiter, that, when this day, early in the morning, both the conspirators and their accusers were being led by my command through the Forum to the Temple of Concord, at that very time the statue was being erected? And when it was set up and turned towards you and towards the senate and you yourselves saw everything which had been planned against the universal safety brought to light and made manifest.” – Cicero (Cic. Catil. 3.21) (Trans. Yonge)
This project aims to bring to life what Cicero would have seen immediately in the Roman Forum in 63 BCE. Essentially, this project focuses on only the buildings Cicero or his audience would have seen directly in that moment. Plans like this are usually always seen on paper. However, with parts of the projects shown in 3D, the goal is to make it more immersive and educational to the viewer.
This plan is a 1:300 scale model of the Roman Forum. All building plans that I am certain of are elevated ~ 4 mm off of the foundation of the board. These surfaces have walls and columns that are artificially elevated by approximately 1 cm. Building plans that I am not certain of are outlined.
More information about each plan can be found through the sources at the bottom of the page.
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The Mosaic of the House of the Dragon (Mosaico della Casa del Drago) image provided by Pedar Foss. “Mosaico Della Casa Del Drago.” https://www.beniculturali.it/luogo/museo-e-parco-archeologico-dell-antica-kaulon, media.beniculturali.it/mibac/files/boards/388a5474724a15af0ace7a40ab3301de/Calabria/292.jpg.
The Mosaic of the House of the Dragon (Mosaico della Casa del Drago), discovered during the 1998 archeological excavation of the ancient site of Kaulonía (see also: Caulonia, Caulon, now known as Southern Calabria, Magna Graecia, Italy) is a polychrome floor mosaic of a sea dragon. It was located near the entrance to a dining hall within the House of the Dragon (Casa del Drago), to which it gave its name. The House of the Dragon is dated to have been developed during the Hellenistic Era, and the mosaic itself is dated specifically to the 3rd century BCE. The 1.9m x 0.9m mosaic is composed of numerous types of tesserae, including stone, glass, and pottery fragments. While very little information is known about the history of the mosaic, new discoveries will be made, as it is under a restoration project at the Archaeological Museum of Monasterace.
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In 1885, Washington C. DePauw made a gift to the university of “several beautiful pieces of Italian marble statuary as the beginning of an art collection…” (Forty-Seventh Year-Book, p. 7). Included in the gift was a 19th century reproduction of The Dying Gaul (also known as The Dying Trumpeter), one of the most famous sculptures of Classical Antiquity. The DePauw University version is carved in green serpentine marble and is approximately one-fourth life-size. It was probably made in Florence, Italy between 1860 and 1882. For many years the figure was on display in the Lilly Center. Unfortunately it was damaged at some point and put in storage. In 2013, thanks to the Kairos Fund in the Department of Classical Studies, The Dying Gaul was restored and is now on display in the Classical Studies Department on the first floor of Asbury Hall.
Continue readingThe Houses of The Cenacoli Colonnades help us understand how ordinary Pompeiians lived. Even with the minimal evidence that archeologists have uncovered, this structure shows a mix of residential and mercantile functions. The family that lived on the bottom floor seemed to have their business attached to their living quarters, though we are still unsure what the business involved.
Photographed 1970-79 by Günther Einhorn, picture courtesy of his son Ralf Einhorn. (From https://pompeiiinpictures.com/pompeiiinpictures/R9/9%2012%2001.htm)
Continue readingBy: Aidan LeBlanc ’23 and Allison Hochstetler ’23
The large-scale reproduction of the Antikythera Mechanism in the DPU Classics suite demonstrates how this ancient artifact, found in a shipwreck deep in the sea, was designed to track and display multiple calendars from the ancient Mediterranean world. It is the most complex piece of machinery ever discovered from antiquity. It was also featured as the ‘magical time-traveling’ device in the 2023 film: Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.
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DePauw University Classics World 
