MyWiki:WikiProject Classical Greece and Rome/Guides/Tertiary sources

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File:Pauly-Wissowa 3 retouched.jpg
The Realencyclopädie in print.

Classical studies is lucky enough to have a plethora of comprehensive tertiary sources. Most of these sources are, however, behind paywalls or otherwise only accessible through academic libraries. Fortunately, the Wikipedia Library (database portal) has made many of them available to editors.

This article is not meant as an exhaustive listing of tertiary or upper-secondary sources. Nor is it meant to prescribe usage of specific sources.

Editors should be aware of Wikipedia policies on verifiability. The age of some sources also matters – see WP:RSAGE – and they will need to be handled with some care. Wikipedia content guidelines also indicate against editors reading old sources, paraphrasing those sources, and then copying the citations out of them. An editor should "say where they got it" and cite the source directly read. Collateral citations, indicating that a source cites a second source, are suggested in the relevant content guideline.

Encyclopaedias

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Oxford Classical Dictionary

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Editors, through the Wikipedia Library, have access to two versions of the full text of the Oxford Classical Dictionary (OCD):

  • OCD Online, via Oxford Research Encyclopedias, and
  • OCD4, the fourth edition of the dictionary via Oxford Reference.

Encyclopedia of Ancient History

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New Pauly

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The Wikipedia Library provides access to the full text of Der Neue Pauly and its English translation, Brill's New Pauly:

Realencyclopädie

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Smith dictionaries

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A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1842), Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1844–1849), and Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) are three encyclopaedias by the English lexicographer William Smith. They can be found online at the Perseus Digital Library:

Overviews and syntheses

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Cambridge Ancient History

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Companions

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Citation appendix

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{{Harvc}} explanation

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Some editors use {{harvc}} to specify chapters of an overarching book.

Collateral citations

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