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BA ANCIENT HISTORY

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BA CLASSICAL ANCIENT HISTORY

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GO UNIVERSITY Ghana/Global 2016/17/18/19

BA ANCIENT HISTORY Degree Course - 3 Years

BA CLASSIC Ancient History

Duration

3 Years

Discipline

Classics and Ancient History

Overview

The Ancient History programme offers you the opportunity to develop an understanding of the history, societies and political ideas of the Ancient Greek and Roman civilizations that is both in-depth and wide-ranging. Studying Ancient History consists of much more than just learning about dates, people and events. As members of a department are recognised for its excellent teaching and world class research, you’ll be challenged to think holistically about the ancient world, historical sources, established orthodoxies and dogmas.

In your first year, you will study the main issues of Greek and Roman History, consider the problems modern scholars face in accessing that history, and explore the ways in which the Greeks and Romans thought about their own past. You’ll also be able to explore the main issues in Greek and Roman society, politics, religion and philosophy. These modules contextualise the historical background by offering insights into how the Greeks and Romans thought about issues such as freedom, democracy, slavery, sexuality and gender, religion and the divine. To help you access the ancient world through the original texts, you will also study Latin or Greek in your first year, which you can choose to continue in your second and third years.

In your final year, you will study one of two central periods in the literary and political history of Greece or Rome. You will also select three ‘special subjects’, one of which may be a dissertation. Special subjects are offered by our academic staff in line with their research interests, and you’ll explore the cutting-edge research in these fields in small seminar groups.

No previous knowledge of Latin or Greek is required.

Programme structure

The modules we outline here provide examples of what you can expect to learn on this degree course based on recent academic teaching.

The Ancient History degree programme is made up of compulsory (core) and optional modules, which are worth 15 or 30 credits each. Full-time undergraduate students need to complete modules worth a total of 120 credits each year.

Depending on your programme you can take up to 30 credits each year in another subject, for instance a language or business module, to develop career-related skills or just widen your intellectual horizons.

Year 1

The first year gives you a foundational knowledge of ancient history theory and concepts. You will also gain important analytical techniques that will be useful across a range of subjects and research tasks.

Year 2

In the second year you will advance your grasp of ancient history knowledge and methods through a set of compulsory modules. Optional modules enable you to develop specialist knowledge on a range of topics.

Year 3

Full module descriptions

Classics and Ancient History undergraduate modules

Level 1 modules Year 1

Module

Credits

The Augustan Age: seen as one of the turning points in the history of Rome, Italy and the Ancient Mediterranean. How did Augustus manage to embody both tradition and innovation, continuity and novelty. Were the great building programs that transformed Rome into an Imperial capital, celebrated, or were the Romans concerned that this was a demonstration of personal power. The module considers key issues of the Augustan Age, uses and definition of propaganda, and the ancient viewer. What models are drawn on to create the new capital city worthy of empire? How is the art and architecture used to rewrite history and bring in new ideals where gods mingle with mortals and myth becomes reality? Can we begin to understand the effect of the new structures on the Roman population? How did the building programme refocus the centres of activity and redirect the movement and gaze of the city? In what sense is the building programme innovative and to what extent is it simply mirroring trends of other great cities with similar types of rule? Is it a monument to immortality?

15 credits

Globalisation in Western Roman Empire

This module uses the concept of globalisation as a lens through which to view the Roman empire – its expansion, the basis for shared cultures and economies, and impacts on conquered ‘native’ communities. These themes are explored with a particular focus on material culture and archaeology, although no prior knowledge is required at the outset. As well as ancient historians and archaeologists, Globalisation in the Roman empire is recommended for humanities and social science students with an interdisciplinary interest in the historical and anthropological dimensions of globalisation, imperialism and urbanisation.

Roman Historical Writings

Focusing on key ancient historians, such as Sallust, Livy, and Tacitus, this module explores how the Romans understood and wrote about their past. For example, it examines how the retelling of key episodes from the city’s early history shaped Roman identity, the way in which the collapse of the Republic was understood within a wider framework of moral decline, and how the intrigue and personalities of the Julio-Claudian dynasty were seen to corrupt Imperial politics. The module investigates the complexities of the different texts, the influence of contemporary issues on an author’s presentation of historical events, and considers the possibilities and limitations of historiography as a source for interpreting aspects of the ancient world

Roman Death

Death is a constant of life, but all cultures deal with death and its aftermath differently – sometimes with profound effects on the way people live their lives. This module uses the material culture of death and burial, supplemented by some complementary extracts from Roman literature, to explore the ways in which Romans dealt with death and sought to give it meaning. We will also show how the material culture of death and burial gives us an insight into the lives of people who are seriously under-represented in our literary sources, including women, children, freedmen, slaves, soldiers, and non-Roman communities in Italy

Roman Philosophy

This module aims to offer a chance for students from various backgrounds to explore a period of philosophy that is less often studied than Greek philosophy but which is rich in its intellectual and cultural interest. It shows how Roman Philosophy emerged against the background of later Greek (Hellenistic) Philosophy and how Roman thinkers gave a distinctive character to philosophical thought. It offers a chance to explore fundamental philosophical questions about human values and happiness, ethics and nature, mind and body, death and the gods, as these are treated by important Roman thinkers such as Lucretius, Cicero, and Marcus Aurelius.

Greek

This module will provide you with an introduction to the ancient Greek language. Using the textbook, Greek for Beginners by L.A. Wilding, you will be guided through basic grammar, syntax and vocabulary of the language. By the end of the year you will be able to read passages of text without assistance enabling you to proceed to higher-level Greek classes. You will develop your understanding of language and in particular develop your understanding of the ancient Greek ways of thought and expression. This module is suitable for beginners; you do not require prior knowledge of ancient Greek.

Greel ll

This module will build on your knowledge of Greek from Greek level I or equivalent. You will learn to read and understand unadapted passages from Greek texts, without assistance. You will also complete some English to Greek work. You will be taught to use grammatical aids which will enable you to follow linguistic structures to help you to solve problems of syntax and grammatical structure. You will have regular practice at translating text and will be assessed both through the year and through an exam in June. This module will prepare you for higher level Greek classes at stage 3.

Greek lll

This module will build on your existing knowledge of Greek. It will increase your fluency in reading whole Greek texts and strengthen your linguistic abilities. You will focus on studying a main set text and supplementary and supporting texts which will be complemented with classes dedicated to language and syntax work.

Latin

This module will provide you with an introduction to the Latin language. By the end of the year you will be able to read passages of text without assistance enabling you to proceed to higher-level Latin classes. You will develop your understanding of the Roman ways of thought and expression which will give you an insight into the various aspects of the ancient world presented in your other modules. You will work both individually and in pairs. This module is suitable for beginners; you do not require prior knowledge of Latin.

Latin ll

This module will build on your knowledge of Latin from Latin level I or equivalent (e.g. GCSE). You will learn independently to read and understand passages without adaption from Latin texts. You will be introduced to grammar and syntax not covered at previous levels of study. Texts will be chosen from various authors of prose and poetry to encourage you to appreciate the style of different authors and the relationship between language and literary content. Building on developing your knowledge of Latin grammar and syntax, study of language and literature will progressively be introduced as your confidence increases.

Latin lll

This module will build on your existing knowledge of Latin. It will increase your fluency in reading whole Latin texts and strengthen your linguistic abilities. You will focus on studying a main set text and supplementary and supporting texts which will be complemented with classes dedicated to language and syntax work

This module explores Greek and Roman epic poems within their literary cultural and social contexts: the Homeric epics Iliad and Odyssey, and selections from Apollonius’ Hellenistic work The Argonautica and Roman ‘epic’, including Catullus 64, Virgil’s Aeneid and Ovid's experimental Metamorphoses.

In this module you will explore Roman History from the mythologised story of the foundation of the city in 753 BC to the end of the Roman Empire in the West over a thousand years later. In particular, you will focus on the late Republic and Principate, a time of rapid imperial expansion, violent internal conflicts and the emergence of a new political order dominated by autocratic emperors. Within a broadly chronological structure, you will explore a range of important topics and questions concerning the Roman world through critical engagement with a wide variety of ancient material and modern scholarly approaches.

Suetonius’ sensational and scandalous biographies of the Roman emperors have been more influential than any other single classical source in shaping modern ideas about imperial Rome as an orgy of sex, violence, luxury and corruption of power, directly influencing works such as Robert Graves I Claudius and the recent TV series Rome. This text also provides important source material for a crucial period in Rome’s history, and is widely cited in modern scholarship as evidence for the first century of imperial rule, as well as for many aspects of Roman culture. This module will study Suetonius Lives of the Caesars in detail, examining how the author uses the ancient genre of biography to explore the question of what it means to be a Roman Emperor, and how this changes from the 1st century BC and the dictatorship of Julius Caesar, through the rule of the Julio-Claudian and Flavian emperors to his own day. Through close analysis of passages from the set text we will explore how the author uses standard and recurrent motifs and themes such as building programmes, family relationships, death scenes, military campaigns, and sexual behaviour to characterise emperors as good or bad rulers, and investigate how he writes about the private lives of public figures as a way of thinking about the nature of power itself.

This module explores women's roles as writers, characters and readers of ancient literature, i.e. writing, written as well as reading women. What do we know about ancient women writers and their works - or female readers in antiquity? Is there a space for a female voice in the domain of ancient literature? Is it possible to unearth female subjectivities in ancient texts?

This module addresses key issues of Roman Love Elegy, a genre that had a lifespan of just 50 years, but a profound and lasting influence on the way in which love is conceptualised and represented. Exploring the poems of Catullus, Propertius, Ovid, Tibullus and the female elegist Sulpicia, we will consider what it means to be ‘in love’ and to write poetry about being in love. How does poetry transform the world and create its own world? How do our elegists interact with previous love poets and with each other? How does their poetry communicate their playful personas, their idealised yet realistic lovers, and their rejections of Roman social ideals?

Level 2 modules -Year 2

Module

Credits

Level 3 modules Year 3

Module

Credits

Ancient journeys & Migrants

Ideas of mass migration are crucial to the understanding of our globally-linked 21st century world. But the phenomenon is not uniquely modern. The ancient world too was born from extensive movement - journeys took heroes, pirates, merchants, courtesans, youths, poetesses, refugees and soldiers among others across seas and mountains. The extensive movements challenge conceptions of a natural tie to the land and a demographically settled world. Using Ancient Italy and Rome we will explore the nature of ancient mobility and attitudes to foreigners in a world without borders by drawing on ancient literature (e.g. Plautus, Catullus, Cicero or Polybius), demography, epigraphy and archaeology (e.g. shipwrecks, burials and tesserae). Was there xenophobia? Not in the comedies of Plautus where foreigners abound. The term ‘migrant’ is simply absent – Why? Boundaries of status rather than of geopolitics were difficult to cross. We will consider how permeable boundaries and multiple fluid identities shaped this ancient society, and look at the many journey stories on the way.

Ancient Medicine

From plagues and human vivisection to epileptic goats, this module will study the diversity of approaches to diseases and healing in Graeco-Roman antiquity – whether religious, ‘rational’ or ‘popular’ – and how these were perceived by different cultures. It will also examine the impact that ancient medicine has had upon the Western medical tradition more broadly, and attempt to understand the ways in which our views of medical figures such as Hippocrates and Galen have been shaped and distorted by more recent developments and concerns.

Ancient Science & society

Was there such a thing as science in antiquity? If so, what did it look like, and who were its practitioners? Why did they do science, and what methods did they employ? For example, did they carry out what we would recognise as experiments? This module will explore a variety of different kinds of scientific research carried out in the Greek and Roman worlds. It seeks to understand why and how particular projects were formulated and developed, how exactly they were pursued, the diversity of ways in which the results were disseminated, and how all of this was influenced by specific historical and cultural conditions. It also looks at what distinctive features there might be in Greek and Roman science, and how ancient scientists grappled with the problems of convincing their audience and constructing authority.

The art and visual culture of the Roman world has left an enduring legacy for the modern world, but it also was an essential part of ancient social life, religion, politics and culture. People living in the Roman world were well aware of the impact that visual culture had on its viewers, and used it to honour the gods, promote themselves, and express personal and shared identities. This module will look at a range of different forms of art (including sculpture, architecture, interior decoration), and a range of different contexts in which art was used and displayed. We shall discuss what art meant to the Roman viewer, and how it can help the modern historian to better understand ancient ideologies and value systems.

This module provides an in-depth exploration of the early history and archaeology of Britain in the Roman empire (c. 100 BC – AD 200), from its perception as an outlandish place on the edge of the known world to its later conquest, colonization and integration. Going beyond modern misconceptions of homogenous Romans and Natives, the module will explore how the various cultures and communities in Britain adapted and responded to life within the global culture and society of the Roman empire. Particular emphasis is placed on material culture as a source for answering political, historical and social questions.

Ever imagined what it would be like to recreate Achilles’ shield? To tell a mythical tale in textile form, like the blanket in Catullus 64? To capture the thrill of Odysseus’ encounter with the Cyclops in clay- animation? Or write a musical interpretation of the Sirens’ lost song…?

This is a module which appeals to the inventive, the creative, the experimental…and the possibilities are as limitless as your imagination. It offers you a unique opportunity to engage critically with the ancient world specifically through creative and imaginative practice. The module will consist of a combination of specialist workshops which are designed to stimulate and enhance your creativity and to provide an intellectual framework for your creative enterprise, and work-in-progress seminars to support you in your individual project.

This is an opportunity not just to write about the Classical tradition, but to become a living part of it, and to bring the ancient past to life in provocative new ways.

Thesis

In this module students will research independently a topic of their choice in the field of Classics and Ancient History, and write up their research in an extended dissertation

Satus of warriors in perspective

This course peers beneath the boars’ tusk helmets of Mycenaean warriors and looks beyond the ‘status warriors’ of the Iron Age to critically investigate the materiality and social representation of gender in Mycenaean and Iron Age Greece (c. 1800-700 BC). Using modern gender theory, material culture approaches and literary theory, we will investigate gender in funerary behaviour, as well as its representation in Linear B, epic poetry and Aegean and Geometric art. By doing so, students will develop an understanding of how the social representation of both genders changed as society changed during these crucial transitional periods.

Greek culture

How did Greek culture interact with other non-Greek cultures in the ancient world? In this module, students will be able to examine both the historical phenomenon of cultural interaction, but also raise questions about their own assumptions about the importance, and ‘impact’ of Greek culture. This course will investigate cultural interaction in a number of historical contexts: Ptolemaic Egypt; Jewish literature from the Hellenistic and Roman periods; the last century of the Roman republic; and Imperial Greek culture of the second / third centuries AD. In examining these contexts, it will also ask students to ask questions how cultural interaction is represented not only by ancient authorities, but also by the modern academy and contemporary political and social debates. Students will be given a considerable amount of freedom to formulate their own questions and investigate the ‘impact’ of Greek culture in various research projects. While there are no co-requisites for this course, the Reception of Greek Culture follows on from it nicely.

This course will explore the experience of living in the Roman world from the time of Augustus to the late second century, focusing in particular on the society and culture of Roman Italy. It will consider the possibilities for social mobility, and how opportunities were affected by factors such as the rigidity (or otherwise) of social hierarchies, a high-pressure demographic regime, the structure and organization of the economy, access to education, urban and rural living conditions, the spread of Roman citizenship, and access to Roman law. Students will learn how to approach a wide variety of ancient material, including archaeology, inscriptions, art, graffiti, business archives, and a variety of written sources, ranging from the novels of Petronius and Apuleius to the legal writings of the Roman Jurists.

The module investigates the wide range of evidence from the Greek and Roman worlds for the practice and representation of magic and witchcraft and beliefs about ghosts and the practical manipulation thereof. Subjects include curse tablets, voodoo dolls, Greek magical papyri, amulets, and a wide range of entertaining and occasionally gory literary sources, including ghost stories.

This module aims to give an insight into the political, social, ideological and cultural life of Rome during the Neronian period. The life of Nero, as it is represented in our sources, serves as a particularly instructive paradigm of the tensions provoked in Roman society and culture between the surviving ideology of the Republic and the political reality of the Principate. To what extent these tensions are reflected, subverted and debated in a literary context is intended to be the dominant point of discussion

This module provides an overview of the reigns of Philip II of Macedon and his son, Alexander the Great (from 359 to 323 BC). It falls into two parts, the first of which considers the rise of Macedon under Philip, and the second the conquest of Asia under Alexander. Particular attention is paid to the nature of our sources for both kings, and the limitations on what we can really know about the nature of their rule. As well as issues relating to Macedonian politics in the period, consideration will also be given to developments in warfare, and how the nature of Macedonian kingship had to change to adapt to new circumstances.

This module is suitable for student who have undertaken modules at levels I and II in ancient history, especially Greek History: Problems and Sources or Comparing Empires and Imperialism, but also modules in Roman History.

This is a module for readers who love whodunnits, horror, and all things weird and wonderful. We will take as our starting-point the development in the ancient world of the literary genre which was devoted to the bizarre – paradoxography – and examine how this genre begins to inflect narrative fiction in the imperial period, producing a variety of strange and intellectually compelling works, from Phlegon of Tralles’ Marvellous Tales to the sordid and magical adventures of the Roman novels (Petronius and Apuleius). Besides their obvious appeal, these texts offer us a unique insight into the ancient experience of fiction, and the (sometimes bizarre) intellectual tastes of imperial readers and their world-view. The module will also examine the dialogue between these fictions and their contemporary culture of wonder, including the world of the Roman amphitheatre and ancient avatars of the circus and freak show.

There are no formal prerequisites for this module, but imagination, intrepid curiosity and a commitment to the transformative power of fiction are a must.

This module is dedicated to close study of the political, social and cultural life of the last generation of the Roman Republic. The same period that witnessed the rise of Pompey the Great, Julius Caesar and Cicero himself also witnessed the collapse of Republican government in a series of bitter political and, finally, military conflicts. Largely thanks to Cicero himself and contemporaries such as Catullus, the final decades of the Roman Republic are among the best documented of all antiquity. This module is dedicated above all to these writings.

This module explores Athenian history at one of its most intense and exciting periods, the end of the fifth century BC. The approach is interdisciplinary, combining historical, literary and philosophical materials in an effort to make sense of the various crises – military, political and intellectual – that Athens experienced at this time. The focus is on broad themes and complex issues, and students are encouraged to take an active role in drawing on the knowledge gained in this and other modules to address challenging questions about social crisis and change at this key moment of Greek history

The puzzle of what brought the Roman empire to its eventual end is the most hotly debated question in the history of history. In this module, you will be given the opportunity to add your own answer to the many that have been proposed over the centuries, as we explore how the unified, pagan Roman world of the first and second centuries A.D. came to fall apart and be replaced by the many different Christian kingdoms of the early Middle Ages. There is, however much more to the study of late antiquity than the (admittedly fascinating) enigma of the end of empire: more written material survives from this period than from any other within the ancient world, and we will be using it not only to illuminate political history, but also as a window into a variety of literary, cultural, religious and social aspects of the period from c. A.D. 284 to 565. In doing so, you will be invited to explore the development of new power structures and forms of cultural expression that took place during this period, as well as considering the major interpretive questions concerning continuity versus change and competing grand narratives for the end of the ancient world.

This module will explore a diverse range of ancient poetic texts which all purport to ‘teach’ something to the reader, whether that be the origins of the universe, when to gather honey from bees, or how to put on the right amount of make-up. It will take in various texts and subject matters, from Hesiod’s Theogony and Works and Days, through Hellenistic didactic, to Lucretius’ De rerum natura, Virgil’s Georgics, Manilius’ Astronomica, and Ovid’s Ars Amatoria. There will also be the opportunity to consider more fragmentary didactic texts in context. The course will focus on the poems individually, as well as on themes and ideas they have in common, and will present passages on topics as diverse as myth, plague, star constellations, farming, death, love and seduction, the cosmos, animals, and the ages of man. The relationship between didactic and other types of poetry (especially epic) will also be examined, in order to give consideration to didactic as a genre that evolved over hundreds of years of literature.