You’ll have at least 10 hours of timetabled contact a week through lectures, seminars and tutorials.
You must pass year two, which counts as 33% towards your final degree classification.
You will also continue with the 'Texts' modules at levels 3 and 4. Information about these can be found below:
Latin or Greek Texts: 1-6
This group of modules is for those who have already reached A-level standard. They allow you to explore the work of Latin or Greek authors in detail.
You will also:
- improve your reading fluency
- gain insight into language and literature
- build linguistic analysis and literacy skills that are valued by employers
We pay special attention to language and style. Analysis of linguistic detail will build both your literary appreciation and your language skills.
Some modules will involve in-depth study of a single text, while others may cover a group of texts representative of an author, genre, period, or theme of Latin literature. All modules combine literary discussion with consideration of the historical and social background.
Regardless of whether you take Latin or Greek, the below applies:
Levels 1 and 2 are for first-year students: they involve a systematic programme of grammar revision alongside support with reading and analysis of the set text.
Levels 3 and 4 are for second-year students: they build on the previous year’s work, allowing you to read a larger amount of text and to develop your skills further.
Levels 5 and 6 are for third-year students: you will by now be able to read texts more independently, and assessment for these modules typically allows you to discuss the set text at greater length and with a high level of literary sophistication.
The texts covered change each year, but recent modules have focused on the following topics:
In Latin:
- Flavian personal poetry (Martial and Statius)
- The emperor Claudius (Suetonius and Tacitus)
- The Cupid and Psyche story from Apuleius’ novel Metamorphoses
- Ethnicity and Empire in Latin Epic (Virgil and Silius Italicus)
- The Power of Love (Ovid and Propertius)
In Greek:
- Tragedy (Euripides’ Hecuba)
- Books from Homer’s Iliad
- Longus’ novel Daphnis and Chloe
- Plutarch’s Life of Antony
- Paradoxography (a portfolio of texts exploring the weird and marvellous)
These modules are mandatory for Classics BA students with an A-level in Latin or Classical Greek. Other students with A-level can choose to start with ‘Latin or Greek Texts’ at levels 1 and 2, but they may drop later modules if they wish.
Each module is worth 20 credits.
You will develop your year one language and start your second language as a beginner.
Beginners' Latin or Greek: 1
This module is for complete beginners. However, it is also suitable if you have already done some study of Latin or Classical Greek (up to GCSE level).
You may find it reassuring that, unlike modern language study, there is no speaking and listening element. The main focus will be on reading text.
This module offers an introduction to the grammar and vocabulary of your chosen language. You will be supported to analyse and understand basic sentences and to translate short passages.
After this module, you progress to ‘Beginners’ Latin or Greek 2’.
This module is worth 20 credits.
"I see learning ancient languages like a puzzle, and I think that helps with problem solving. I have better initiative now, because I know how something fits in Latin and Greek and that can transfer to the everyday." - Chloë Choong
Beginners' Latin or Greek: 2
This module continues from ‘Beginners’ Latin or Greek 1’.
You will:
- Continue to study the structure of your chosen language, including all the major grammatical features
- Develop your reading skills until you can read almost unadapted passages from Latin or Classical Greek texts
After this module, you can choose to continue studying your chosen language in your second year, in the ‘Intermediate’ level modules. Note: This is mandatory for Classics BA students.
This module is worth 20 credits.
Intermediate Latin or Greek: 1 and 2
Continue your study of Latin or Classical Greek, following on from the beginners’ level modules.
You will thoroughly consolidate the vocabulary and grammar of your chosen language and begin the detailed linguistic and literary study of an unadapted Latin or Greek text.
In Latin, you will typically read a text such as Cicero’s Pro Archia, or a book of Virgil or Ovid.
In Greek, the text might be a complete speech by Lysias or selections from a longer text such as the Odyssey or a Greek tragedy.
The assessment for these modules emphasises comprehension and analysis of grammatical structures over memorisation and translation.
Each module is worth 20 credits.
Choose 40 credits from a range (this varies every year, but might include the below).
Extended Source Study
This module is designed to develop your skills of research, analysis and written presentation as preparation for a third year dissertation in classical civilisation. You will write a 5,000 word essay chosen from a range of topics, each focusing on a single piece of ancient source material. You will be provided with a topic for investigation, starter bibliography and tips on how to approach the question. The questions will suggest a range of possible approaches, from evaluation of historical source material to exploration of literary effects, relationships with other material, discussion of context or reception. For this module you will have a mixture of lectures and four 2-hour seminars over a period of 10 weeks.
Studying Classical Scholarship
This module focuses on the history and development of the scholarship on ancient Greece and Rome and on specific theories, approaches and methods used by modern scholarship. The aim is to sharpen your engagement with and understanding of scholarship, and to give a deeper appreciation of the ways the ancient world has been appropriated. Studying the history of scholarship in its socio-political context will show you how the questions we ask depend on the situations we live in; it will also allow you to judge the merits and limitations of scholarly approaches and will develop your skills of research and analysis, as preparation for your third-year dissertation. As with the Extended Source Study, you will choose a work-sheet relating to an area of the ancient world which particularly interests you; the module is assessed by an oral presentation and a 4,500-5,000 word essay.
The Peloponnesian War
The Peloponnesian war lasted for more than 25 years. It came to involve much of the Greek world, as diverse states and peoples felt compelled to become allies of either Sparta or Athens. The scale of this struggle, and its repercussions, make it a highly significant period of Greek history.
You will answer key questions about this conflict, including:
- Why and how did it start?
- Why did it last so long?
- How was it fought?
- How was it won?
- What were its consequences?
In particular, we will examine the disproportionate role that one man, the Athenian historian Thucydides, plays in shaping our knowledge and understanding of this conflict. How far can we use other authors and types of evidence to get beyond this hugely significant, but imperfect source?
This module is worth 20 credits.
Writing History in Ancient Rome
This module will examine the writing of narrative histories in ancient Rome and their importance in the study of Roman history, particularly in the late Republic and Imperial periods. The works of ancient historical writers differ significantly from modern historians in their approach to evidence, narrative, and impartiality, and we need to be aware of these differences when using these texts as sources. This module will therefore consider the importance of the works of historians like Livy, Tacitus, and Ammianus not only as sources for the study of history, but as literary works in their own right, examining issues of historical accuracy and reliability alongside generic conventions, narrative structures, and issues of characterisation.
Religion and the Romans
Religion was central to all aspects of Roman life, but did the Romans really 'believe'?
This module explores the traditions and rituals that operated in Roman society, from the earliest stages of archaic Rome, to the advent of Christianity. It will help you to make sense of customs and practices that could baffle even the Romans themselves, alongside showing how the religious system controlled Roman social, political and military activities.
You will examine evidence drawn from the late Republic and early Principate, and use literature and images from the Augustan period as a central hinge for studying the dynamics of religion in Rome.
Topics covered include:
- The definition of 'religion' and comparative studies
- Early Rome and the origins of religion
- The calendar temples and other religious buildings
- Priesthoods and politics
- Sacrifice
- The deification of the emperor
- Foreign cults in Rome
- The supposed 'decline of religion'
- Early Christianity
This module is worth 20 credits.
Communicating the Past
Get creative and build your knowledge on an aspect of Classics or Archaeology which interests you.
Your aim in this module is to communicate your chosen topic to the general public. How you choose to do that is entirely up to you. You might explore different types of writing, perhaps for children or in the style of a magazine, or you might experiment with a different medium of communication, such as video, website or phone app.
For example, past students have:
- Created a museum exhibition
- Reconstructed an ancient artefact
- Designed a new public engagement strategy for a historic site
- Developed a board game
- Created a marketing campaign
The module convenor will support you to design an appropriate topic and format for your project.
You will develop vital research, project design and communication skills, which are excellent preparation for a range of careers, as well as your third-year dissertation.
This module is worth 20 credits.
“I designed several T-shirts and hoodies which conveyed information about the site’s art and architecture, history, and its eventual ruination by ISIL in 2015. I wanted to combine my interest of fashion with my love for the classical world, and this project gave me the opportunity to do so.”
- Alexander Gadd, Created a clothing brand based on Palmyra
Read more student experiences about this module
The World of the Etruscans
When Rome was still a small town, and before Athens became a city of international significance, the Etruscan civilisation flourished in Italy and rapidly gained control of the Mediterranean.
But who were the Etruscans? The Greeks and the Romans regarded them as wealthy pirates, renowned for their luxurious and extravagant lifestyle and for the freedom of their women. Archaeology, however, tells us much more about their daily life and funerary customs, their religious beliefs, their economy, their language, and their technical abilities and artistic tastes.
In this module, you will examine visual and material culture, as well as epigraphic and literary sources, in order to lift the shroud of mystery that often surrounds the Etruscans. You will also place them in the context of the wider Mediterranean world in the 1st millennium BC, examining their exchanges with the Near Eastern kingdoms, their cultural interactions with Greece and the Greek colonial world, and their role in the early history of Rome.
By exploring Etruscan cities and cemeteries from the 9th to the 3rd centuries BC, with their complex infrastructures and technologies, lavish paintings, sculptures and metalwork, you will discover a most advanced civilisation that shared much with the classical cultures and yet was very different from them.
This module is worth 20 credits.
Britain in the Later Roman Empire (c. 250-450)
This module examines Britain in the later-Roman Empire. It is a fascinating period of prosperity, integration, and sophistication. Yet it is also marked by rebellion, civil war, and the sundering of the links that had bound Britain to the continent so deeply for so long.
We will cover from the crisis that marked the middle years of the 3rd century, to the disappearance of Roman power in the early 5th, and the rapid economic collapse and social transformation that followed.
You will take an interdisciplinary approach, combining archaeological and historical evidence, and will be expected to familiarise yourself with a wide range of evidence.
We will examine:
- the political framework of the later-Roman Empire
- the textual and archaeological evidence for Britain’s society and economy
- the barbarian peoples who threatened and interacted with it
- the question of how it ended up leaving the Roman Empire
You will also consider the integration of different types of source material, thinking about Britain’s place in the wider world in a broader context.
This module is worth 20 credits.
The Silk Road: Cultural Interactions and Perceptions
This is a discipline-bridging cross-campus module, involving colleagues from across the School of Humanities.
The Silk Road will be presented as a range of archaeological, historical and scientific themes. Broad cultural themes will be balanced with the presentation of specific case studies, such as:
- The definitions of the Silk Roads
- Byzantine, Islamic and later medieval Silk Roads
- Luxury production
- Trade and exchange from the Roman and later periods
- Ming Dynasty links with the West
Scientific techniques for the analysis of materials, and their role in the interpretation of trade and exchange along the Silk Roads, will also be considered. This could be between, for example, China, central Asia, Scandinavia and the Middle East.
This module is worth 20 credits.
Oedipus Through the Ages
You will explore the ancient evidence for the myth of Oedipus and selected representations of the myth in the post-Classical world. In terms of evidence, you will have the opportunity to explore ancient drama and other poetry as well as visual culture and mythographic writings. In terms of post-Classical representations, there will be a particular focus on performance and on modern popular culture, including (but not necessarily limited to)
- film
- popular mythology books,
- material aimed at children,
- on-line representations,
- humour