Many scholars have created readily accessible online resources to aid both their colleagues and the general public to better understand the Greeks, the Romans, and many other cultures of Classical antiquity. Here is a list in alphabetical order of some of these websites.
Think we’ve missed something? Let us know.
A website about the Achaemenid Empire founded by Pierre Briant, one of the leading scholars in the field. Available in both French and English.
This website is developed by Jeremy B. Rutter (Professor of Classics) and JoAnn Gonzalez-Major (Instructional Designer), Dartmouth College. The site deals exclusively with the Aegean Bronze Age, with content spread across more than two dozen “lessons”. Accessible to a general audience, with illustrations and extensive bibliographies.
Aa digital resource for locating and studying graffiti of the early Roman empire from the cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum. More than 500 ancient graffiti are currently available: ca. 300 from Herculaneum and another 200 from Pompeii (from the Lupanar, Insula I.8, and other locations).
Chuck Jones’s blog at Ancient World Online (AWOL) features, among other things, an alphabetical list of open access journals in ancient studies.
As Reddit describes it, “AskHistorians is a carefully moderated public history forum where the public asks questions, and where historians provide answers. […] AskHistorians may be the largest public history forum on the internet.” Contributor Roel Konijnendijk is a moderator and very active on AskHistorians, answering lots of questions about Classical Greece with incredible detail; you can jump directly to his profile for an overview.
Attic Inscriptions Online is an ambitious project led by Dr. Stephen Lambert, of Cardiff University, which provides digital versions of inscriptions from Athens and Attica. With over 1,000 inscriptions currently available, it provides a valuable resource for researchers working on Athens and its environs. Each inscription is provided as an English translation and is accompanied by scholarly notes and relevant bibliography.
Inspired by the hashtag #badancient, introduced by Dr Owen Rees, the people behind Ancient World Magazine have started this website, which fact-checks claims about the ancient world.
Hosted by Oxford University, the Beazley Archive is one of the most helpful tools to conduct research on ancient pottery, terracottas, and gems. It consists of a number of searchable databases which allow you to quickly navigate the collection. Helpfully, all of the artifact entries contain photographs, notes, and lists of relevant bibliography.
A website by Ulrich Harsch that makes a lot of (ancient) texts available online in their original languages. Helps if you know at least a little Latin.
The website of the Chicago Homer offers the Homeric epics and the works of Hesiod (including the Shield of Heracles ) in both Greek and translated forms. Translations include those by Richmond Lattimore.