Classical Studies

Course detail Description

Our Classical Studies BA course embraces the study of Greece and Rome through researching their languages, literature, thought, religion, art, archaeology and history, and debating their influence on subsequent ages.

The Classical Studies degree is a three-year course that comprises of modules totalling 360 credits. Each year, you will take modules totalling 120 credits; and with no required modules, this is an unusually flexible course that you can tailor to reflect your particular interests.

We use lectures, seminars and group tutorials to deliver most of the modules on the course. You will also be expected to undertake a significant amount of independent study. You will be assigned a personal tutor who will provide support and guidance for your studies.

Typically, one credit equates to 10 hours of work.

Your performance will be assessed through a combination of coursework and written/practical examinations. Forms of assessment may typically include coursework essays, written examinations and individual or group presentations. In your first year, you will be assessed by an approximately even combination of coursework essays and written examinations. In your second and third years, depending on your choice of modules you may experience more modules assessed by coursework or more modules assessed by written exams or an even mixture of both.

The majority of learning for this degree takes place at the King’s College London Strand Campus. Please note that locations are determined by where each module is taught and may vary depending on the optional modules you select.

Greek Play

The King’s Greek Play has been an annual tradition since 1953 and it is the only production in the country to be performed every year in the original Greek. Students (with all levels of Greek) participate in the direction, production and performance of the play, bringing to the stage playwrights from Aeschylus to Aristophanes.

Rumble Fund

In 2013 the Department of Classics created the Rumble Fund following a generous donation by a former student. This fund is used each year to pay for a group of students to visit classical lands as part of their degree programme.

Classics Society

Students run the Classics Society, which publishes the Satyrica newsletter and organizes regular lectures, theatre outings, themed parties, private tours around museums, nights out and trips abroad – in recent years, group expeditions have been made to Italy and Turkey.

Iris Project

The department also promotes teaching Latin in disadvantaged primary schools through the Iris Project; this offers students a highly unusual experience that is both enriching and will impress future employers.

Study abroad

All students are offered the unique opportunity to study abroad as part of a Classics degree at King’s, and recent popular destinations include The University of California and The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

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Structure

• Year 1
• Year 2
• Year 3

Year 1

There are no required modules at any stage of this course. Instead you will select from a range of optional modules to achieve a total of 120 credits for each year of the course.

There are no required modules in Year 1.

You are required to take 120 credits, which may include 30 credits of Greek or Latin language acquisition from a range of optional modules which may typically include:

• Art & Archaeology of Greece & Rome (30 credits)
• Introduction to Ancient History (c 1200 BC–AD 600) (30 credits)
• Greek & Latin Literature: An Introduction (30 credits)
• Introduction to Ancient Philosophy (30 credits)
• Greek Language 1 (30 credits)
• Latin Language 1 (30 credits)
• Introduction to Byzantium & Modern Greece: The Greek-Speaking World from 330 AD to Today (15 credits)
• Receptions of the Past: The Hellenic World from Antiquity to Today (15 credits)

With the approval of the course convenor, you can also choose to substitute one 15 credit Level 4 (Year 1) Classics module with an appropriate Level 4 module offered by the Faculty of Arts & Humanities and Global Institutes.

View a complete list of modules and descriptions.

Year 2 Required Modules

There are no required modules in Year 2.

You are required to take 120 credits from a range of optional modules which may typically include:

• Homer (15 credits)
• Early Greece from Troy to Marathon (15 credits)
• The World from Babylon: 911–ca550 BC (15 credits)
• Sex & the Symposium: The Evidence of Athenian Painted Pottery (15 credits)
• Democracy, Empire & War: Greece 446–338 BC (15 credits)
• Virgil’s Aeneid (15 credits)
• Latin Love Elegy (15 credits)
• Pompeii: History & Society (15 credits)
• Ancient Sexuality I (15 credits)
• Mapping Society & the Past: Historians & Sophists (15 credits)
• Roman Art 1: Art, Power & Authority (15 credits)
• Who Needs Myth? (15 credits)
• Myth & Literature: Ancient Stories, Modern Meanings (15 credits)
• Female Voices in Greek & Latin Literature (15 credits)
• Greek Language 1 (30 credits)
• Latin Language 1 (30 credits)
• Greek Language 3A (30 credits)
• Latin Language 3A (30 credits)
• Greek Drama (30 credits)
• Roman Britain (30 credits)

You can choose to study modules totalling 30 credits from another department in the Faculty of Arts & Humanities and Global Institutes, with the approval of the department.

You also have the opportunity to study abroad in the second semester of the second year or for the whole of the second year. Partner universities currently include:

• University of Auckland
• University of Melbourne
• University of Toronto (full year only)
• University of California
• University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill (up to five places exclusively available for Classics students)
• University of Sydney

Year 3

There are no required modules in Year 3.

You are required to take 120 credits from a range of optional modules which may typically include:

• Streetwise: narrating the city in classical literature (30 credits)
• Neronian Literature & Culture (30 credits)
• Plato’s Myths: The Soul, Desire & the Beyond (30 credits)
• Living for Ever: Fame & Glory from Homeric Heroes to Roman Emperors (& Beyond) (30 credits)
• Minoans & Mycenaeans (30 credits)
• Archaeology of the Western Roman Provinces (30 credits)
• Frontiers of the Roman Empire (30 credits)
• The Classical Art of the Body: Greek Sculpture & its Legacy (30 credits)
• Augustus: Power & Propaganda (30 credits)
• Pagans, Christians & Jews in the Roman Empire (30 credits)
• The Rise of Rome, c650–70 BC (30 credits)
• An Introduction to Classical Reception Studies in Sixteen Encounters (30 credits)
• Dissertation (30 credits)
• Descent to the Underworld: Transformations of a Myth (15 credits)
• Venice: History & Art (15 credits)
• Persian Kings & their Territory in the Achaemenid Empire (15 credits)
• Origins of Nations & Nationalism: Identity in the Hellenic World (15 credits)

You can also choose to study modules totalling 30 credits from another department in the Faculty of Arts & Humanities and Global Institutes, with the approval of the department.

King’s College London reviews the modules offered on a regular basis to provide up-to-date, innovative and relevant courses. Therefore, modules offered may change.