Ancient History - BA (Hons)

This module is intended to explore and reflect on the nature of responses to Classical mythology since its first appearance and particularly in the modern world. Scholarship on approaches to mythology, as well as reception studies theory (i.e. the critical framework through which modern responses to and understanding of Classical mythology can be interpreted), will inform the analysis of responses to myth in both its ancient and modern setting. A selection of case studies will enable the exploration of a range of cultural responses to Classical mythology and may include appropriations of myths across a range of media. These responses may include the Roman response to Greece to give a point of comparison for modern responses to ancient myth. The function of the myth in its new context will be a thematic focus in the module. During the module students will participate in a formative group project, designing their own adaptation of Classical myth with the intended purpose of public engagement. The module will reinforce awareness of both the polysemic nature of mythology as well as the relevance of Classics in the modern world.

Find out more about CLAS5002

This module examines in detail the history of the Roman Empire from the emergence of the Principate under Octavian/Augustus to the establishment of the Principate 2.0 under Trajan. It will also provide both a survey of a major period of Roman imperial history and an opportunity to study in greater depth the administrative, social, economic and religious developments of this period. Students will read widely from the ancient sources, historical, literary and documentary, and will be introduced to the inscriptional evidence for imperial history. This module will concentrate on the main administrative, social, economic and religious developments throughout the period rather than on the details of political and military history.

Students will read widely in the major ancient sources, including Tacitus, Pliny and Suetonius, and will be introduced to the inscriptional and documentary evidence for imperial history.

Find out more about CLAS5870

Across much of Britain by the Late Bronze Age (from c. 1000 BC), economic and social organisation was beginning to assume forms that provided the foundations for subsequent fundamental transformations seen through the First Millennium BC: in population, in agriculture, in technology, in land holding and power and cultural forms. The period saw the emergence of technologies, manufacturing and craft skills, social structures and belief systems, husbandry and movement of enduring influence. The unfolding of this formative period, with its efficiently managed landscape dotted with farmsteads and hillforts, lavish metalwork and occasionally exotic burials, and its fluctuating and enigmatic relationships with mainland Europe, is accessible mostly through archaeological study alone: and what a rich resource that has proved to be, especially through recent studies and techniques. Only at the very end does limited historical information become available when we are told of the presence of chariot borne warriors, kings, queens and Druids.

This module spans the late Bronze and Iron Ages, presenting the often dramatic and striking archaeological and historical data within current interpretative frameworks. All parts of the British Isles will come into focus. Settlements, burials, material culture, environmental remains and monuments are explored revealing a richly nuanced matrix of cultural evidence that inspires interrogation and interpretation.

Find out more about CLAS6660

This module reviews texts relating to sexual behaviour attitudes and relationships throughout Latin Literature, raising questions about both the perception of sexuality in antiquity and how perception was translated into social and political relationships. Because of the nature of its coverage, it can be counted as either a literature or a social history course, and is intended as a wide-ranging complement to both. The module relies on primary texts from a variety of literary genres, from Epic and poetry to private letters, legal texts and inscriptions.

Find out more about CLAS6670

How do you imagine Roman Antiquity? How do the images produced for film, TV and popular fiction reflect the lives of those in antiquity? Can we see the everyday experience of Pliny, Juvenal or Augustine or of those who were killed in the eruption of Vesuvius in AD 79?

This module will explore everyday life in the Roman world, from haircuts, tattoos and gestures, to everyday rites and rhythms, whether domestic, social, political or religious, focusing on human experience, with its culturally specific organisation rather than abstract scholarly constructions. It will range from Augustan Rome to Late Antique Constantinople, and will draw on depictions, literary evidence (such as poems), original documents (from personal letters to minutes of meetings), inscriptions and especially archaeology, focusing on key sites where preservation is good, such as Pompeii, Ostia, Sardis and Petra. Here buildings, graffiti, occupation deposits and other traces will allow snapshots of everyday life to be constructed: of the houses, workshops, taverns, temples, theatres and churches of Antiquity. Students will be encouraged to undertake both empirical studies and imaginative reconstructions as part of their assessment, so that they understand the importance not only of describing what evidence remains of everyday life, but of actively reconstructing the past, and of engaging different types of evidence in a critical dialogue.

Find out more about CLAS6740

The module will allow the student to acquire knowledge and critical understanding of the fundamental principles related to collecting and interpreting objects within museums and managing these institutions. Students will be required to become familiar and engage critically, during the seminars, with the key references on these topics. Students will then be required to apply concepts and principles learnt in class in the context of their internship.

As part of their internship, each student will devise a special project in consultation with the mentor and the module convenor. Precise objectives and skills to be learnt will be recorded and tracked regularly. Students will keep a weekly log of their activities. The placement may take place either at a set period during the Easter vacation or at regular intervals over the Autumn and Spring terms.

Find out more about CLAS7000

This module introduces some of the major works in ancient philosophy in relation to ethics, aesthetics, political theory, ontology and metaphysics. Students will study substantial portions of primary texts by the Presocratics, Plato, Aristotle the Epicureans, Stoics and/or the Skeptics. The emphasis throughout will be on the philosophical significance of the ideas studied. The module will concentrate on understanding key philosophical arguments and concepts within the context of the ancient intellectual tradition. This means that students will gain a critical distance from normative and modern definitions of philosophical terms in order to understand how ancient philosophy generally approached questions and problems with different suppositions and conceptions of reality, reason and the purpose of human existence.

Find out more about CLAS7080

This module explores 5th-century Athenian history through the plays that were put on stage during this period of war and political upheaval. Greek tragedies and comedies produced during this tumultuous period (472-405 BC) offer us some of the most enticing, yet challenging, evidence for the state of Athenian politics and attitudes to contemporary events (especially war and empire). In this module, the evidence of key plays will be set against other forms of historical evidence to illuminate the complex relationship between the types of evidence that survive and the nature of 'making history'.

Find out more about CLAS7130

This module examines in detail the history of the Roman Republic from 350 BC through to 100 BC, and provides both a survey of a major period of Roman history and an opportunity to study in greater depth the political, social, and economic consequences of the development of Rome's imperial ambitions in the Mediterranean. Students will read widely in the ancient sources, historical, literary and documentary. Students will read widely from a range of works including Polybius, Plutarch, Livy, Appian, Cicero, and Sallust.

Find out more about CLAS7320

The module focuses on solidifying students' knowledge of Ancient Greek grammar and vocabulary through exercises and by reading texts in the original. Students will participate in the close reading and interpretation of Greek literary texts through translation. This enhances their understanding of the key themes and ideas in the text.

Find out more about CLAS7550

In addition to consolidating intermediate knowledge of grammar and vocabulary, this module emphasises close reading and interpretation of Ancient Greek literary texts in their literary and cultural contexts.

Find out more about CLAS7560

The module focuses on solidifying students' knowledge of Latin grammar and vocabulary through exercises and by reading texts in the original. Students will participate in the close reading and interpretation of Latin literary texts through translation. This enhances their understanding of the key themes and ideas in the text.

Find out more about CLAS7600

In addition to consolidating advanced knowledge of grammar and vocabulary, this module emphasises close reading and interpretation of Latin literary texts in their literary and cultural contexts.

Find out more about CLAS7610

Virgil composed the Aeneid in order to provide Rome with an epic equal to Homer. Commonly regarded as one the greatest epics of the ancient world, the Aeneid is the story of the foundation of Rome; a tale of exile, war, passionate love and the deepest humanity. We will analyse, comment on and explore the epic, book by book. This will be intertwined with a thematic approach, investigating issues concerning the gods, fate, morality, art and gender.

Find out more about CLAS7620

This module examines, in detail, Greek history from the end of the Persian invasions to the fall of Athens in 404 BC. The main themes of the module are the rise and fall of the power of Athens, the Peloponnesian War and the role of the Persian Empire in Greek history in the 5th century BC. Particular attention will be paid to the causes of the conflict between Athens and Sparta and to the political and military history of the last three decades of the 5th century BC.

Find out more about CLAS7630

Homeric epic forms the foundation of literature in the Western tradition, its study therefore enriches our cultural understanding of both the ancient Greek past and our present. This module explores Homeric epic through the study of the Iliad and/or the Odyssey. Students will be introduced to the key concepts of the world of epic, such as xenia (guest friendship), kleos (reputation), and kudos (glory). They will also learn to recognise, and analyse the meaning of, epic conventions, such as stock epithets, type scenes, and formulaic repetition. These concepts and conventions will enhance the examination of the central themes of the Homeric epic, such as the hero, women, ethnicity, gods, war, peace, poetry, and mortality.

Find out more about CLAS7640

This module is concerned with the interaction between two contiguous but very different peoples, Egypt in the Late Period and Classical Greece. Though the Aegean world had a long history of contact with Egypt, the volume of contact increased dramatically under the XXVI (Saïte) Dynasty, with the foundation of commercial settlements, the development of vigorous trade relations and the arrival of many Greeks as traders, mercenaries and tourists. That contact had profound consequences both in the short and longer term; provided an essential support for the last great dynasty of independent Egypt; aided the rise of the East Greek cities of Ionia; and it influenced the development of Greek sculpture and architecture.

Equally important, it revealed to the Greeks a civilisation, which was deeply impressive, in many ways superior, yet alien. The immediate fruit of that perception lies in the stimulus to Greek thought and history writing, especially through Herodotus (a vital witness to Egyptian religion and society of this age). In the longer term, it shaped the way in which the West perceived Egypt, creating myths about its antiquity, its religion and its wisdom that continues to affect us today, not least in the shaping of traditional Egyptology. The module will be taught from a range of sources, archaeological, papyrological, historical and literary.

Find out more about CLAS7700

This module is intended to explore and reflect on the nature of responses to Classical mythology since its first appearance and particularly in the modern world. Scholarship on approaches to mythology, as well as reception studies theory (i.e. the critical framework through which modern responses to and understanding of Classical mythology can be interpreted), will inform the analysis of responses to myth in both its ancient and modern setting. A selection of case studies will enable the exploration of a range of cultural responses to Classical mythology and may include appropriations of myths across a range of media. These responses may include the Roman response to Greece to give a point of comparison for modern responses to ancient myth. The function of the myth in its new context will be a thematic focus in the module. During the module students will participate in a formative group project, designing their own adaptation of Classical myth with the intended purpose of public engagement. The module will reinforce awareness of both the polysemic nature of mythology as well as the relevance of Classics in the modern world.

Find out more about CLAS5002

This module examines in detail the history of the Roman Empire from the emergence of the Principate under Octavian/Augustus to the establishment of the Principate 2.0 under Trajan. It will also provide both a survey of a major period of Roman imperial history and an opportunity to study in greater depth the administrative, social, economic and religious developments of this period. Students will read widely from the ancient sources, historical, literary and documentary, and will be introduced to the inscriptional evidence for imperial history. This module will concentrate on the main administrative, social, economic and religious developments throughout the period rather than on the details of political and military history.

Students will read widely in the major ancient sources, including Tacitus, Pliny and Suetonius, and will be introduced to the inscriptional and documentary evidence for imperial history.

Find out more about CLAS5870

This module is intended to introduce undergraduate students to research. As such it provides an opportunity to work on a topic of their own choosing, in either archaeology, history or ancient literature. Originality and feasibility are important aspects of writing dissertations, and to avoid problems topics will be scrutinised and approved by CLAS before research can begin. Students can expect guidance from the module convenor and an academic supervisor throughout the process, varying from one-to-one tutorials to classes on how to edit your own prose. There will also be a meeting regarding the Dissertation at the end of the Spring term of the previous year to clarify arrangements and to outline what work is required on this module.

The programme document with regulations is sent to all students before the end of spring term of Stage 2. Students are invited to suggest titles for comment, for which tutors are allocated. They are advised to do preliminary reading over the summer based on generic advice of the module convenor. They then choose precise topics in consultation with the convenor and personal tutors at the start of the autumn term.

Find out more about CLAS6001

This module addresses one of the fundamental aims of the programme, to familiarise students with the techniques of independent study and practice methodological skills they have acquired/are acquiring in their other modules. Projects may be developed on any suitable subject, subject to approval by the convenor, and the module can be linked with any of the modules in the programme. Choices will be informed by the student's personal interests, the fulfilment of the aims of the module, the availability of expert supervision, and the accessibility of relevant material.

Find out more about CLAS6002

This module will provide a detailed and research-led study of the century of political instability now known commonly to historians as the 'crisis' of the Roman Republic. It begins at the end of the 2nd century BCE amidst a period of rising populism, demagoguery, and socio-economic strain and fragmentation among the traditional elite. Proceeding through the civil wars of the 1st century BCE, from Sulla and Marius, Pompey and Caesar, and finally Antony and Octavian, the study ends with the defeat of Antony and Cleopatra at the Battle of Actium in 31 BCE and the accession of Octavian/Augustus as monarch over the Roman Empire.

The lectures will give detailed discussion of the varying scholarly interpretations of this much-discussed and famous period of Roman history, introducing students to the sources of evidence (historiography, biography, political philosophy, art, coinage, architecture, inscriptions) and providing models of their effective combination. In addition to the chronological survey of the period discussed, lectures will also develop major themes essential to the students' understanding of the century of political crisis that precipitated the transition from Republic to monarchy. Topics covered may include tradition and innovation; art and the political; consensus models; crisis theory; women and the sub-elite as political actors; rhetoric and its abuse; warfare and imperialism.

The seminars will provide hands-on training in the interpretation of the evidence for these periods and themes, both material and literary, arising out of the content of the immediately preceding lecture. Some seminars will also be reserved for discussion in order to clarify best practice for the assessments.

Find out more about CLAS6004

The module will allow students to acquire knowledge and critical understanding of the principles related to UNESCO World Heritage. Students will learn about the historical development of the concept of World Heritage and the related concept of intangible heritage and why they are often confused. Students will also acquire an in-depth understanding of the national management of World Heritage sites, and assess different approaches to managing sites. Students will then acquire advanced understanding of the latest key issues and themes, including on World Heritage and the Sustainable Development Goals, and on climate change. They will also debate recent ethical issues, including the difficulty of involving local communities or the destruction of heritage. During the course, practical and professional skills in drafting statements of value, key aspects of management plans and tourism plans will be acquired by students.

Find out more about CLAS6005

This module covers the battery of up-to-date fieldwork techniques deployed in the discovery, recording and excavation of archaeological sites using a combination of lectures, small-group work and practical assignments in the field. Topics include strategies for finding and recording sites, from the analysis of historical sources and aerial photographs, to geophysics, field walking, and the survey of earthworks and standing buildings. The full range of excavation techniques is examined including approaches to the excavation of special deposits such as burials and cremations and sampling strategies for the recovery of artefacts and environmental remains.

The module concludes with post-excavation analysis and strategies for publication and dissemination of archaeological reports covering both traditional and computer-based applications. Students enrolling for this module should be aware that some of the fieldwork practicals may be outside, and occasionally off campus, and possibly conducted on, Saturdays or during the Easter Vacation (for a Spring term module) or Summer Vacation (for an Autumn term module), the specific arrangements being dependent upon weather and site availability, etc.

Find out more about CLAS6210

This course will survey the evolution of the Mediterranean city from AD 300 to 650, the urban crisis that followed, and the direction which urban life took thereafter. City life in this period was, until recently, poorly understood, hindered by the prejudices of classical archaeologists, who removed late levels without record, and the selective interests of Christian archaeologists who concentrated on churches. Now new archaeological fieldwork has revealed much greater complexity, from urban collapse in the West to the flourishing cities of the sixth century East, which provided a foundation for much of Early Islamic urbanism.

Although north-west Europe is included, the Mediterranean is the predominantly the focus of this module where urban life was strongest, throughout the period. Lectures will explore both thematic and regional syntheses, with a major distinction drawn, not between a Greek East and a Latin West, but between a Mediterranean core and a northern periphery. An attempt will be made to link changes in the physical appearance of cities to wider events and processes: whether military, political, religious or economic in character. Seminars will explore aspects of the rich source material available, whether drawn from architectural remains, stratigraphic archaeology, epigraphy, or selected written sources of the period.

Find out more about CLAS6390

Across much of Britain by the Late Bronze Age (from c. 1000 BC), economic and social organisation was beginning to assume forms that provided the foundations for subsequent fundamental transformations seen through the First Millennium BC: in population, in agriculture, in technology, in land holding and power and cultural forms. The period saw the emergence of technologies, manufacturing and craft skills, social structures and belief systems, husbandry and movement of enduring influence. The unfolding of this formative period, with its efficiently managed landscape dotted with farmsteads and hillforts, lavish metalwork and occasionally exotic burials, and its fluctuating and enigmatic relationships with mainland Europe, is accessible mostly through archaeological study alone: and what a rich resource that has proved to be, especially through recent studies and techniques. Only at the very end does limited historical information become available when we are told of the presence of chariot borne warriors, kings, queens and Druids.

This module spans the late Bronze and Iron Ages, presenting the often dramatic and striking archaeological and historical data within current interpretative frameworks. All parts of the British Isles will come into focus. Settlements, burials, material culture, environmental remains and monuments are explored revealing a richly nuanced matrix of cultural evidence that inspires interrogation and interpretation.

Find out more about CLAS6660

This module reviews texts relating to sexual behaviour attitudes and relationships throughout Latin Literature, raising questions about both the perception of sexuality in antiquity and how perception was translated into social and political relationships. Because of the nature of its coverage, it can be counted as either a literature or a social history course, and is intended as a wide-ranging complement to both. The module relies on primary texts from a variety of literary genres, from Epic and poetry to private letters, legal texts and inscriptions.

Find out more about CLAS6670

How do you imagine Roman Antiquity? How do the images produced for film, TV and popular fiction reflect the lives of those in antiquity? Can we see the everyday experience of Pliny, Juvenal or Augustine or of those who were killed in the eruption of Vesuvius in AD 79?

This module will explore everyday life in the Roman world, from haircuts, tattoos and gestures, to everyday rites and rhythms, whether domestic, social, political or religious, focusing on human experience, with its culturally specific organisation rather than abstract scholarly constructions. It will range from Augustan Rome to Late Antique Constantinople, and will draw on depictions, literary evidence (such as poems), original documents (from personal letters to minutes of meetings), inscriptions and especially archaeology, focusing on key sites where preservation is good, such as Pompeii, Ostia, Sardis and Petra. Here buildings, graffiti, occupation deposits and other traces will allow snapshots of everyday life to be constructed: of the houses, workshops, taverns, temples, theatres and churches of Antiquity. Students will be encouraged to undertake both empirical studies and imaginative reconstructions as part of their assessment, so that they understand the importance not only of describing what evidence remains of everyday life, but of actively reconstructing the past, and of engaging different types of evidence in a critical dialogue.

Find out more about CLAS6740

The module will allow the student to acquire knowledge and critical understanding of the fundamental principles related to collecting and interpreting objects within museums and managing these institutions. Students will be required to become familiar and engage critically, during the seminars, with the key references on these topics. Students will then be required to apply concepts and principles learnt in class in the context of their internship.

As part of their internship, each student will devise a special project in consultation with the mentor and the module convenor. Precise objectives and skills to be learnt will be recorded and tracked regularly. Students will keep a weekly log of their activities. The placement may take place either at a set period during the Easter vacation or at regular intervals over the Autumn and Spring terms.

Find out more about CLAS7000

This module introduces some of the major works in ancient philosophy in relation to ethics, aesthetics, political theory, ontology and metaphysics. Students will study substantial portions of primary texts by the Presocratics, Plato, Aristotle the Epicureans, Stoics and/or the Skeptics. The emphasis throughout will be on the philosophical significance of the ideas studied. The module will concentrate on understanding key philosophical arguments and concepts within the context of the ancient intellectual tradition. This means that students will gain a critical distance from normative and modern definitions of philosophical terms in order to understand how ancient philosophy generally approached questions and problems with different suppositions and conceptions of reality, reason and the purpose of human existence.

Find out more about CLAS7080

This module explores 5th-century Athenian history through the plays that were put on stage during this period of war and political upheaval. Greek tragedies and comedies produced during this tumultuous period (472-405 BC) offer us some of the most enticing, yet challenging, evidence for the state of Athenian politics and attitudes to contemporary events (especially war and empire). In this module, the evidence of key plays will be set against other forms of historical evidence to illuminate the complex relationship between the types of evidence that survive and the nature of 'making history'.

Find out more about CLAS7130

This module is aimed at those students who would like to follow a career as Primary or Secondary School teachers but is also suitable to those who would like to combine an academic course with work experience. Placements in a school environment will enhance the students' employment opportunities as they will acquire a range of skills. It will also provide students with the opportunity to develop their knowledge and understanding of Classical Studies and Ancient History in the primary or secondary school context. The university sessions and schoolwork will complement each other. At the university sessions students will benefit from the opportunity to discuss aspects related to their placement and receive guidance.

Students will normally make visits to a school, where each student will have a designated teacher-mentor who will guide their work in school. They will observe sessions taught by their designated teacher and possibly other teachers. Initially, for these sessions students will concentrate on specific aspects of the teachers' tasks, and their approach to teaching a whole class. As they progress, it is expected that their role will be, to some extent, teaching assistants, by helping individual pupils who are having difficulties or by working with small groups. They may teach brief or whole sessions with the whole class or with a small group of students where they explain a topic related to the school syllabus. They may also talk about aspects of University life.

Find out more about CLAS7310

This module examines in detail the history of the Roman Republic from 350 BC through to 100 BC, and provides both a survey of a major period of Roman history and an opportunity to study in greater depth the political, social, and economic consequences of the development of Rome's imperial ambitions in the Mediterranean. Students will read widely in the ancient sources, historical, literary and documentary. Students will read widely from a range of works including Polybius, Plutarch, Livy, Appian, Cicero, and Sallust.

Find out more about CLAS7320

This module takes a critical and interdisciplinary approach to modern interpretations of ancient literature, culture and art. After first developing a rich and detailed view of a key theme in classical studies (e.g. inebriation, madness, divine signs, humour, emotion, ugliness, the senses), the module will then explore how its central theme is addressed both in the ancient world and in twenty-first century debates.

Find out more about CLAS7360

The module provides students with an advanced understanding of Ancient Greek Prose through the reading, translation and interpretation of ancient text(s). Students will gain a systematic understanding of Greek by reading texts in the original with special attention to stylistics, textual criticism and/or thematic development through the use of author- and theme-specific scholarly tools and publications. The emphasis in this module will be on the development of critical skills that aid in the analysis of the text(s) as literature within a broader literary and cultural context.

Find out more about CLAS7530

The module focuses on solidifying students' knowledge of Ancient Greek grammar and vocabulary through exercises and by reading texts in the original. Students will participate in the close reading and interpretation of Greek literary texts through translation. This enhances their understanding of the key themes and ideas in the text.

Find out more about CLAS7550

In addition to consolidating intermediate knowledge of grammar and vocabulary, this module emphasises close reading and interpretation of Ancient Greek literary texts in their literary and cultural contexts.

Find out more about CLAS7560

The module provides students with an advanced understanding of Latin Prose through the reading, translation and interpretation of ancient text(s). Students will gain a systematic understanding of Latin by reading texts in the original with special attention to stylistics, textual criticism and/or thematic development through the use of author- and theme-specific scholarly tools and publications. The emphasis in this module will be on the development of critical skills that aid in the analysis of the text(s) as literature within a broader literary and cultural context.

Find out more about CLAS7580

The module provides students with an advanced understanding of Latin Verse through the reading, translation and interpretation of ancient text(s). Students will gain a systematic understanding of Latin by reading texts in the original with special attention to stylistics, textual criticism and/or thematic development through the use of author- and theme-specific scholarly tools and publications. The emphasis in this module will be on the development of critical skills that aid in the analysis of the text(s) as literature within a broader literary and cultural context.

Find out more about CLAS7590

The module focuses on solidifying students' knowledge of Latin grammar and vocabulary through exercises and by reading texts in the original. Students will participate in the close reading and interpretation of Latin literary texts through translation. This enhances their understanding of the key themes and ideas in the text.

Find out more about CLAS7600

In addition to consolidating advanced knowledge of grammar and vocabulary, this module emphasises close reading and interpretation of Latin literary texts in their literary and cultural contexts.

Find out more about CLAS7610

Virgil composed the Aeneid in order to provide Rome with an epic equal to Homer. Commonly regarded as one the greatest epics of the ancient world, the Aeneid is the story of the foundation of Rome; a tale of exile, war, passionate love and the deepest humanity. We will analyse, comment on and explore the epic, book by book. This will be intertwined with a thematic approach, investigating issues concerning the gods, fate, morality, art and gender.

Find out more about CLAS7620

This module examines, in detail, Greek history from the end of the Persian invasions to the fall of Athens in 404 BC. The main themes of the module are the rise and fall of the power of Athens, the Peloponnesian War and the role of the Persian Empire in Greek history in the 5th century BC. Particular attention will be paid to the causes of the conflict between Athens and Sparta and to the political and military history of the last three decades of the 5th century BC.

Find out more about CLAS7630

Homeric epic forms the foundation of literature in the Western tradition, its study therefore enriches our cultural understanding of both the ancient Greek past and our present. This module explores Homeric epic through the study of the Iliad and/or the Odyssey. Students will be introduced to the key concepts of the world of epic, such as xenia (guest friendship), kleos (reputation), and kudos (glory). They will also learn to recognise, and analyse the meaning of, epic conventions, such as stock epithets, type scenes, and formulaic repetition. These concepts and conventions will enhance the examination of the central themes of the Homeric epic, such as the hero, women, ethnicity, gods, war, peace, poetry, and mortality.

Find out more about CLAS7640

The module is concerned with the history, archaeology and culture of the ancient Graeco-Roman world, and covers the period from c. 776-479 BC. Among the subjects examined in detail are the growth of the formation of the Greek polis (city-state, a central feature of the civilisation of Greece and Rome), the impact of colonisation on the Greek world, and the circumstances for the invasion of Greece by the contemporary Persian world-empire.

Find out more about CLAS7650

This module examines in detail the history of the Roman Empire from the death of the last Flavian emperor (96 CE) to Constantine's establishment as sole emperor in 324 CE. It thus provides both a survey of a major period of Roman imperial history and an opportunity to study in greater depth the administrative, social, economic and religious developments of this period. Students will read widely in the ancient sources (historical, literary and documentary) and will be introduced to the inscriptional, numismatic, and papyrological evidence for imperial history. This module will concentrate on the main administrative, social, economic and religious developments throughout the period rather than on the details of political and military history.

Students will read widely in the major ancient sources, including Pliny, Dio Cassius, Herodian, and the Historia Augusta. Students will also get experience in working with the documentary evidence for imperial history, including inscriptions, coins, papyri, as well as legal sources.

Find out more about CLAS7660

This module is concerned with the interaction between two contiguous but very different peoples, Egypt in the Late Period and Classical Greece. Though the Aegean world had a long history of contact with Egypt, the volume of contact increased dramatically under the XXVI (Saïte) Dynasty, with the foundation of commercial settlements, the development of vigorous trade relations and the arrival of many Greeks as traders, mercenaries and tourists. That contact had profound consequences both in the short and longer term; provided an essential support for the last great dynasty of independent Egypt; aided the rise of the East Greek cities of Ionia; and it influenced the development of Greek sculpture and architecture.

Equally important, it revealed to the Greeks a civilisation, which was deeply impressive, in many ways superior, yet alien. The immediate fruit of that perception lies in the stimulus to Greek thought and history writing, especially through Herodotus (a vital witness to Egyptian religion and society of this age). In the longer term, it shaped the way in which the West perceived Egypt, creating myths about its antiquity, its religion and its wisdom that continues to affect us today, not least in the shaping of traditional Egyptology. The module will be taught from a range of sources, archaeological, papyrological, historical and literary.

Find out more about CLAS7700