BA Classical Studies

Compulsory modules

Texts, Readers and Writers 

Develop the knowledge and skills required to succeed in academic study of the ancient world including the literature, writing and numeral systems of ancient Greece and Rome. 

Ancient Song 

Discover a range of lyric poetry from ancient Greece and Rome and consider a range of thematic approaches to reading the surviving texts. 

Greek History: War, Society and Change in the Archaic Age 

Track the upheavals, innovations, and conflicts across ancient Greece and beyond. Using evidence, you’ll reconstruct the events and practices that are subject to ongoing debate.  

The Past in the Present  

Understand the value of material culture for our study of antiquity. You will learn how museums encourage audiences to engage with the ancient world through their collections.

Optional modules

Roman History: The Rise and Fall of the Republic  

Investigate a period marked by profound socio-political changes in Rome and discover the evidence for ancient history and modern methodological approaches, considering the relevance of Roman antiquity to issues in the modern world.   

Latin 1-3

You’ll be taught elements of the Latin language, literature, and culture to enable you to read the language at an elementary level. 

Ancient Greek 1-3

Learn elements of the Ancient Greek language, literature, and culture, enabling you to read the language at an elementary level.  

Presenting the Past: An Introduction to Museum Studies

Examine how contemporary museum practice contributes to social challenges. Visits to museums, case studies and theory will help you to consider the origins of museums along with how information is collected and presented to different audiences. 

Optional Language or University Wide Modules     

Study a module from outside your department to enhance your understanding of history and culture. Alternatively, you can learn one of ten languages offered by the University at a level appropriate for you. 

These are the modules we currently offer for 2024/25 entry. They may be subject to change as we regularly review our module offerings to ensure they're informed by the latest teaching and research methods.

Please note that the University cannot guarantee that all optional modules will be available to all students who may wish to take them.

You can also register your details with us to receive information about your course of interest and study and life at the University of Reading.

Compulsory modules

Ancient Epic 

Discuss interpretations of Greek and Latin epic hexameter poetry such as the Iliad, Odyssey, and Aeneid.  

Ancient Drama 

Discover ancient drama by examining their content, themes, and performance style and uncovering the context in which they were produced. 

You'll also select one of the following employability modules:

Careers for Classicists and Ancient Historians

Set yourself targets in order to make impactful job applications following your graduation, relating your experience of exploring career paths to selected careers in the ancient world. 

OR

Careers for Classicists and Ancient Historians with Placement

Complete a work or academic placement in summer to enhance your employability. You’ll relate your experience of exploring career paths to selected careers in the ancient world. 

OR

Curatorship and Collections Management

Explore the methods used by professionals to store, catalogue, and research objects, and to communicate their meanings to the public. You’ll receive an induction to these methods and undertake assignments based on objects in the University’s collections.  

Optional modules

Greek History: Persian Wars to Alexander  

Discover the Greek classical age (479-323 BC), how to interact with sources, and principles and methods central to the study of ancient history. 

Roman History: From Republic to Empire 

Gain knowledge of the historical, political, social, and economic developments of the imperial era of Rome, using various sources to investigate the impact of the Roman world on the present day. 

Ancient Greek 1-4

Develop your skills to become competent reading ancient Greek authors and further your knowledge of grammar, syntax, and vocabulary of the language. 

Latin 1-4

Further your knowledge of the grammar, syntax, and vocabulary of Latin to increase your confidence when reading authors in the original Latin. 

Greek Sculpture and Architecture

Gain knowledge of sculpture and architecture in the Greek world, from its beginnings to the end of the Hellenistic period and consider how, why, where and when these media developed. 

My Mother's Sin and Other Stories

Discover Greek poetry and fiction from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. You’ll consider historical, sociocultural, and wider literary developments of the period and how they illustrate attitudes to the ancient past. 

Museum Learning and Engagement

Critically examine the learning role of museums in society and discover resource design, evaluation, and visitor research. Talks from museum-based professionals and museum visits will allow you to contextualise and apply your learning.  

Celts and Romans: Northern Europe and Britain

Understand the character of the archaeological evidence for the Roman presence in Northern Europe in the period 300 BC to AD 300, in the context of the major social, cultural and economic changes of the region in this period.

Entertainment and Leisure in Roman Society

Examine the social, political and economic connotations of entertainment, from top-down spectacles in the circus, the amphitheatre, and the theatre which were organised by social and economic elites to bottom-up, DIY activities like board games.

Roman Satire

Explore humour and invective in the Roman world, considering what caused the indignation of Horace, Persius, and Juvenal and how they included mockery in their writings.

Greek Religion and Mythology

Gain knowledge and an understanding of key aspects of ancient Greek religion, the ancient evidence and salient scholarly approaches.

Ancient Egyptian Language and Hieroglyphs

Study elements of the Ancient Egyptian language and learn how to read Egyptian, in the hieroglyphic script, at an elementary level. There will be instruction in grammar and the Egyptian hieroglyphic script, and practice in translation. 

Optional Language and University Wide Modules

Study a module from outside your department to enhance your understanding of history and culture. Alternatively, you can learn one of ten languages offered by the University at a level appropriate for you. 

These are the modules we currently offer for 2024/25 entry. They may be subject to change as we regularly review our module offerings to ensure they're informed by the latest teaching and research methods.

Please note that the University cannot guarantee that all optional modules will be available to all students who may wish to take them.

You can also register your details with us to receive information about your course of interest and study and life at the University of Reading.

Optional modules

Dissertation in Classics

Investigate a topic within classics to form the basis of an extended piece of original research or an original artistic production. To prepare for the dissertation you’ll participate in workshops and submit an assessed proposal. 

Independent Project in Classics

Conduct research, explication and documentation of a topic presented in a format different from the traditional dissertation. You’ll prepare for the project by participating in workshops and submitting an assessed proposal. 

Latin 1-6

Practice unseen translation to improve your language skills and achieve greater fluency in Latin with increased knowledge of the language’s grammar, syntax, and vocabulary. 

Ancient Greek 1-6

Increase your fluency in Ancient Greek by practicing unseen translation and developing advanced knowledge of grammar, syntax, and vocabulary. 

Greek and Roman Painting 

Investigate and critique Greek and Roman painting by exploring the styles and techniques used to decorate architecture and free-standing objects in the ancient world. 

'Race' and Ethnicity in the Ancient Greek and Roman Worlds 

Challenging the notion that ‘race’ and racism are modern concepts, you’ll explore racial and ethnic otherness in Greek and Latin texts along with how classical texts continue to shape our thinking on these issues. 

From Classroom to Courtroom: Mastering the Art of Persuasion in the Ancient World  

Consider the relationship between theory of rhetoric and the practice of oratory in antiquity by examining the construction of ancient speeches and the skills required for composing and delivering them. 

Optional Language or University Wide Modules

Study a module from outside your department to enhance your understanding of history and culture. Alternatively, you can learn one of ten languages offered by the University at a level appropriate for you. 

History, Culture, and Society in the Time of Nero

Investigate whether Nero’s legacy as a cruel leader reflects his true self or is a biased image based on exaggerated portrayals by his contemporaries. Understand how contemporary Romans experienced his rule and affected his later memory.

Gender and Classical Antiquity

Study the ways in which gender relations were constructed in the literature, art, culture and institutions of ancient Greece and Rome, and the impact of such constructions on ideas about gender in the modern world.

Romans and the Natural World

Understand the contribution of the natural world to the social, economic, political, religious and cultural lives of Romans in the Early Imperial period.

Aristotle: Philology, Philosophy, Politics

Undertake a close analysis of the language, themes, and significance of Aristotle’s philological, political, and philosophical works. Explores the origins of philosophy and its relation to science by discussing On the Soul, Physics, Metaphysics.

Ancient Biography

Gain an understanding of the ancient genre of biography and especially of Plutarch’s Parallel Lives, and of key historical figures from antiquity and the evidence on which our knowledge of them is based. 

Xenophon's Anabasis

Explore a rarely taught text: Xenophon’s Anabasis, which shows us many aspects of Classical Greek life which are normally left out of view. 

Ancient Ethiopia: The Aksumite Kingdom

Find out about the Aksumite kingdom of the Ethiopia and Eritrea in the period c. 1-500 AD, and how it interacted with neighbouring states in ancient Sudan and South Arabia, and with the Greek, Roman and Egyptian world.

Emergence of Civilisation in Mesopotamia

Develop an in-depth knowledge of key developments in Mesopotamia from the late 4th to the early 2nd millennium BC.  Undertake a critical understanding of theoretical and methodological approaches to the study of early urban settlement and society in this region and in archaeology more widely.  

These are the modules we currently offer for 2024/25 entry. They may be subject to change as we regularly review our module offerings to ensure they're informed by the latest teaching and research methods.

Please note that the University cannot guarantee that all optional modules will be available to all students who may wish to take them.

You can also register your details with us to receive information about your course of interest and study and life at the University of Reading.