Capitalisation in Classics can look very complicated. The main thing to remember is: BE CONSISTENT.
But there are also some rules:
The following words should always be capitalised:
- the first word of every sentence
- proper nouns, i.e. individuals' names, place names, languages, days of the week, months of the year, festivals (e.g. Saturnalia, Lupercalia, Whitsun, Ramadan, Diwali) and holy days; names of books (e.g. the Satires, the Odes)
- the numbers of books (e.g. Book One or Book 1)
- the personal pronoun ‘I’
- Roman numerals, e.g. XIV, IV, MCLXVII
God or god? God is capitalised when referring to the Christian, Jewish or Islamic God. It varies in other religions, but when referring to the Roman or Greek gods, do not capitalise the 'g'.
Events: Many events in the classical world are capitalised:
- the Second Persian War
- the Peleponnesian War
Some words are sometimes capitalised and sometimes not, according to how they are used. The rule is: if the word is being used as part of a title, capitalise. If not, even if it is referring to a named person, don't capitalise:
- King Priam, but the king
- the King of Athens, but the king
- Queen Penelope, but the queen
- the Ancient Agora, but the agora
- the Persian Empire, but the empire
- the Battle of Marathon, but the battle
- the Roman Republic, but the republic
- Glasgow University, but the university
- the Theory of Forms, but the theory
Other capitalisations change with fashion. We always write of the Renaissance and the Reformation, because these have come to be distinct entities, but we can have:
- the senate or the Senate
- senators or Senators
- the Acropolis or the acropolis
- the enlightenment or the Enlightenment
- the middle ages or the Middle Ages
You must, however, BE CONSISTENT.
In titles of books, journals, articles or on websites, the following should be capitalised:
- the initial letters of the first word
- all nouns (naming words)
- pronouns (I, you, her, him, it, us, etc.) but NOT the word 'that'
- adjectives (words that describe nouns, e.g. the brown dog)
- verbs (doing words)
- adverbs (words describing verbs, or describing any other word apart from nouns)
- subordinate conjunctions (e.g. after, although, as, because, before, since, than, though, etc.)
- the first word after a colon (this rule only applies in titles)
For example:
The Basic Works of Aristotle
Logicomix: An Epic Search for Truth
The Laws
Sparta and Lakonia: A Regional History
A History of the Classical Greek World
A History of My Time
Geographical capitals should be used as in the following examples, i.e. capitalise when the term is a title or a political division, but if a geographical descriptor, leave lower case. This is a sensible rule, brought in for the sake of clarity. So:
- the Western Roman Empire, but west of Rome
- North America, but northern Britain
- Western Europe, but western Gaul
- South Africa, but the south of Scotland