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THE ANCIENT WORLD
OMNIBUS IV*

Foundational literature for the modern student

Available in 2025-2026

Omnibus IV, for grades 10 and up and those students who have completed Omnibus I, is the first text in the second cycle of the Omnibus curriculum from the publisher Veritas Press. Just like Omnibus I, Omnibus IV covers the beginning of time to the fall of Rome. However, the course also studies more difficult texts, incorporates the growing rhetorical nature of the student, and engages him or her at a higher academic level. The teaching emphasizes grappling with ideas over simply gathering information, and it helps the student to evaluate these ideas in light of the Scriptures.

 

As in all levels of the Omnibus, daily readings, assignments, and other activities lead students to interact with the greatest works of Western Civilization in a challenging, enjoyable, and profitable way. Students also apply and further develop their skills in composition, logic, and aesthetics. While the Omnibus IV Student Text leads the student through the masterworks of classical antiquity, students also read various secondary titles that correlate with our study of the period.

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BOOKLIST FOR THE ANCIENT WORLD (OMNIBUS IV)**

Omnibus IV Student Text plus books like the following:​

  • The Iliad (Homer)

  • The Histories (Herodotus)

  • The Bacchae (Euripides)

  • The Republic (Plato)

  • Poetics (Aristotle)

  • Eclogues and Georgics (Virgil)

  • Annals of Imperial Rome (Tacitus)

  • Metamorphoses (Ovid)

  • Meditations (Marcus Aurelius)

  • Augustus Caesar's World (Foster)

  • Troilus and Cressida (Shakespeare)

  • Mythology (Hamilton)

  • The Man Born to be King (Sayers)

  • Till We Have Faces (Lewis)

  • The Best Things in Life (Kreeft)

  • Mere Christianity (Lewis)

  • The Holiness of God (Sproul)

  • The Elements of Style, 4th edition (Strunk & White)

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* Note for 2022-2023:  Current juniors and seniors took an ancient and Biblical civilizations course from me based on the Omnibus curriculum. While the Omnibus IV textbook was used for a portion of that course, students actually read heavily from the Omnibus I booklist. In retrospect, the course should have been titled “Omnibus I Advanced,” to avoid the confusion.  The course offered for the 2022-2023 school year will again use the Omnibus IV textbook to introduce most of the books, almost all of which will be new to the students since they were not read the last time this course offered. A few will be reread because they are essential enough to cover again, although this time in greater depth and detail. 

 

** Represents the list from which readings are chosen as well as the relative order in which they are presented. Bible books and some short references are not listed. An official booklist will be provided for registered students.

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