Venues

Gilmorehill Campus

Content

Year 1
You will study the history, politics and culture of classical Athens and Augustan Rome. You will use a wide variety of source material, including buildings, coins, artefacts and literary works such as epic poems and plays alongside historical texts.

Year 2
You will study Greek cities, communities and kingdoms and the wider Mediterranean world in the build-up to Alexander the Great's world-changing conquests in the fourth century and their aftermath in the Hellenistic period.

You will also study the Roman Empire by considering literary, historical and material evidence (including historians such as Tacitus and Suetonius) to investigate issues of identity and power across the empire as well as the lived experience of its inhabitants (including topics such as slavery, gender, language, religion, education, disability).

Years 3 and 4
If you progress to Honours (years 3 and 4), you will choose from a wide variety of options in ancient history that reflects current key issues, debates and research on the ancient world. These could include, for example, courses in ancient medicine, ancient technology, Athenian democracy, Roman history from the Gracchi to Sulla, Greek religion, the ‘invention of history’ by Herodotus, Thucydides and Xenophon, Cleopatra (her life and legend), and the fall of the Roman Empire.

Entry Requirements

2026 entry requirements

Standard entry: 5 Highers at AAAAB (by end S6 with min BBBB after S5) including English and a humanities subject at AA (AB or BA may be considered).

Entry to year 2 may be possible with 3 Advanced Highers at AAA in relevant subjects.

Widening access entry: 4 Highers at AABB or BBBB (by end S6) including English and a humanities subject. Completion of pre-entry programme is necessary.

Grades and subjects may vary depending on combinations taken.