Ancient History

Course summary

Ancient History focuses on the history of Ancient Greece and Rome with half of the course dedicated to each culture. The Greek units include an overview of the history of Sparta, Greece’s most militarised culture. You will discover how the Spartans governed themselves, their liberal views on the place of women in society, as well as their relations with their slave population. Coupled with this is an overview of the Greek city states in the fifth century BC; starting with the reasons for the war with the Persian Empire and then looking at how the Greek city states ended up at war with each other later in the century. The other half turns to the beginning of the Roman Empire with a focus on Roman Britain. Firstly you will study the civil wars which erupted after the murder of Julius Caesar and focuses on the Julio-Claudian Emperors, a family who struggled to rule Rome. From the first emperor Augustus and his success in creating an empire, followed by the stern Tiberius, and the supposed fool Claudius, to the mad and dangerous to know Caligula and Nero, these are some of the most interesting characters to govern Rome. The study of Roman Britain looks at Roman military policy towards Britain from the Claudian Invasion through to the retrenchment under Hadrian and Trajan. You will look at Roman attempts to subjugate the native tribes as well as resistance to the Romans including Boudicca’s infamous revolt. The main difference between History A Level and Ancient History A Level is that in this course you will study the history through reading ancient source material from the time period; therefore you will study the Greeks as viewed by writers such as Herodotus, Thucydides and Plutarch, and Rome according to Suetonius and Tacitus, amongst others. You can take both History and Ancient History A Levels as part of your courses at King Edward’s College.