Ancient History MA (Hons)

In the first two years of your degree (known as sub-honours) you will take the required modules in Ancient History alongside modules in at least one other subject.

Typically, you will take one Ancient History module per semester during your first two years, and two modules per semester during your third and fourth year (known as Honours).

1st Year

Students will take the following compulsory first-year modules:

• The Greeks in a Wider World: surveys Greek history from the origins of the Greek city-states in the Archaic period (ca. 800 BCE), through the heyday of Athens’ empire and democracy in the fifth century, to Alexander the Great’s conquest of the Persian Empire. Alongside political and military history, the module tackles topics such as religious belief, sexuality, and Greek interactions with other peoples of the ancient Mediterranean world.
• Rome and the Mediterranean: traces Rome’s trajectory from a small settlement in central Italy to the centre of a Mediterranean empire. The module examines a wide range of topics, including politics, the family, religion, slavery, poverty and the economy. It exposes the links between the growth of Rome’s power abroad and the transformation and eventual collapse of its Republican government at home.

Second year compulsory modules in Ancient History are:

• Mediterranean Communities: examines the human settlement and material culture of the entire Mediterranean world throughout classical antiquity, tracing the transformation of the Mediterranean from a world of tiny peasant and tribal communities to a world of complexly connected cities, states and empires.
• The Roman Empire: explores the complex history of the Roman Empire from Augustus to Late Antiquity, an empire which, for the first and last time, united the whole Mediterranean and its diverse hinterlands.

Students can replace one or both of these modules with second-year Classical Studies modules in order to adapt the programme to suit their interests. Second year modules in Classical Studies are:

• Culture and Thought in the Late Roman Republic: studies the art and literature of Rome in the Late Republic (first century BCE). Key literary texts, such as the passionate poetry of Catullus and the stylish rhetoric of Cicero, are set against the broader backdrop of Roman political, cultural and social life in this turbulent period of civil war and dictatorship.
• Early Greek Poetry and Philosophy: surveys the very origins of Western civilisation in the archaic and early classical Greek world. The module studies the diversity of early Greek thought through the poetry and philosophy of the period, and explores themes of conflict, love and the relationship between mortals and gods.

Ancient History students must take the core module Approaches to Ancient History in their third year. In addition, you will choose from a variety of advanced options, including modules from a wide range of periods that showcase different historical approaches. You will also have access to modules from the Ancient History & Archaeology and Classical Studies programmes, which will give you an even wider choice of social, cultural and historical topics to explore.

Here is a sample of Honours modules which have been offered in previous years:

• The Culture of Roman Imperialism
• Eight Scenes from the Life of Alexander the Great
• Greeks and Others
• Persia and the Greeks
• Religious Communities in the Late Antique World
• Roman Slavery.

In fourth year, students also undertake a 10,000-word dissertation on a topic of their choice. This independent project enables you to develop key research skills which are desired by both prospective employers and by graduate schools offering postgraduate degrees.

The sub-honours modules listed here are the compulsory modules that students must take in order to graduate in this subject. However, most students at St Andrews take additional modules, either in their primary subject or from other subjects they are interested in. For Honours level, students choose from a range of Honours modules, some of which are listed above.