Bachelor of Arts (BA)
BA Ancient History and History
- Typical A-level offer: AAB including specific subjects
- Typical contextual A-level offer: ABC including specific subjects
- Refugee/care-experienced offer: ACC including specific subjects
- Typical International Baccalaureate offer: 35 points overall with 6,6,5 at HL including specific subjects
Fees and funding
Fees
Tuition fees for home students commencing their studies in September 2025 will be £9,535 per annum (subject to Parliamentary approval). Tuition fees for international students will be £26,500 per annum. For general information please see the undergraduate finance pages.
Policy on additional costs
All students should normally be able to complete their programme of study without incurring additional study costs over and above the tuition fee for that programme. Any unavoidable additional compulsory costs totalling more than 1% of the annual home undergraduate fee per annum, regardless of whether the programme in question is undergraduate or postgraduate taught, will be made clear to you at the point of application. Further information can be found in the University's Policy on additional costs incurred by students on undergraduate and postgraduate taught programmes (PDF document, 91KB).
Scholarships/sponsorships
- Find out more from student finance
- Eligible UK students can apply for bursaries and scholarships
- Funding for EU and international students is on our country-specific pages
- Many students work part-time or complete a student internship
Course unit details:
National Identity and the Roman Past
Unit code | CAHE23022 |
---|---|
Credit rating | 20 |
Unit level | Level 2 |
Teaching period(s) | Semester 2 |
Available as a free choice unit? | Yes |
Overview
This course will examine Roman attitudes to the legendary and historical past as they developed in the Republic and early Empire. It will also look at Roman responses to other cities, nations and peoples with whom they came into contact, including other Italic communities, as well as the Gauls and the Greeks. Above all, the course will consider Roman attitudes to the city of Rome itself, with special emphasis on sites of religious and political significance. Topics covered will include.
- the development of the myth of Troy in the late Republic
- the ‘Roman virtues'
- temples and religious practice as the focus of national feeling
- the symbolic significance of the Capitol, the Aventine and the Palatine
Pre/co-requisites
Anti-requisite: This course cannot be combined with CAHE33021 National Identity and the Roman Past
Aims
(for all students)
to enable students to broaden and deepen their knowledge of the Roman world by studying a range of texts (across several genres) that explore the exemplary function of the past in Roman culture
to develop further the skills, intellectual, practical and transferable, acquired in study of Roman history and literature during the previous year
Learning outcomes
By the end of this course students will have acquired:
Teaching and learning methods
Weekly: 1 lecture plus tutorials
Lectures will provide a framework of information and models for interpretative work which will be explored in more depth in seminar sessions.
Knowledge and understanding
- Broad and detailed knowledge of traditional myths of early Rome in Roman historiographical and poetic traditions
- Understanding of the nature of patriotism and identity in Rome in the late Republic and early Empire
Practical skills
- Subject-specific skills, including sophisticated evaluation of literary texts as sources of evidence for ancient culture
Transferable skills and personal qualities
- Transferable skills and personal qualities include the ability to construct an argument in written and oral form, to pose questions about complex issues
- To assimilate and summarise large quantities of evidence
- To locate and retrieve relevant information from primary sources
- To conduct bibliographic searches
- To present the results in a professional manner with appropriate reference to sources and modern published scholarship
- To use e-resources and gain knowledge of research methods and resources
- To manage time and resources
- To engage in critical discussion.
Assessment methods
Assessment task | Weighting within unit |
1 x essay | 25% |
1 x commentary exercise | 25% |
Examination | 50% |
Feedback methods
- Written feedback on formative and summative assessment (see above)
- Additional one-to-one feedback (during the consultation hour or by making an appointment)
Recommended reading
All students taking the course will read (in English) a ‘core’ selection of texts from a wide range of ancient authors (including Polybius, Suetonius, Ovid, Livy, Cicero, Vergil, Pliny the Elder, Macrobius and Augustine).
Suggested preliminary reading :
Dinter, M.T. & Guérin, C. eds. (2023). Cultural memory in Republican and Augustan Rome. Cambridge ; Cambridge University Press
Edwards,C. (1996) Writing Rome: Textual Approaches to theCity, Cambr idge
Flower (1996) Ancestor Masks and Aristocratic Power in Roman Culture, Oxford
Gildenhard, I., Gotter, U., Havener, W., & Hodgson, L., eds., (2019). Augustus and the destruction of history: The politics of the past in early imperial Rome (Vol. 41). Cambridge Philological Society.
Miles, G. (1995) Livy: Reconstructing Early Rome, Cornell
Study hours
Scheduled activity hours | |
---|---|
Lectures | 22 |
Seminars | 11 |
Independent study hours | |
---|---|
Independent study | 167 |
Teaching staff
Staff member | Role |
---|---|
Maria-Ruth Morello | Unit coordinator |