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This Ancient History BA allows you to explore a wide range of diverse periods, places, and cultures thanks to a broad syllabus that gives you the freedom to follow your interests.  As well as history, you could also choose to study topics in literature, art, archaeology, and philosophy, learn ancient languages such as Latin and/or Greek. Your studies can cover a vast geographical area, from Roman Britain to the Black Sea, Persia, Egypt, and North Africa.

You’ll also learn how to work with primary and documentary sources, such as literary texts and ancient inscriptions. This will help you to engage with the various types of history you’ll encounter, including social, cultural, political, military, economic, and religious history, and to scrutinise current debates in scholarship.

Key benefits

• Classics at King’s is ranked first in the UK for research excellence (REF 2021) and fourth among UK Classics Departments in the QS World Rankings 2024.
• Become part of one of the largest Classics departments in the UK, offering unique coverage from the Bronze Age to Modern Greece.
• Our central London location offers collaborations with the British Museum and other cultural institutions, which are incorporated into our teaching.
• Combine focus and flexibility by pursuing your interests in a department renowned for the quality of its teaching and the student experience.
• Acquire analytical and presentational skills that employers value, which could lead to careers in heritage-related professions, the media, education, the civil service and the performing arts.

This Ancient History BA degree offers a broad curriculum that mostly comprises modules that you will choose. This gives you the freedom to explore your interests, with modules ranging from earliest Greece, Rome and beyond to the impact of antiquity on the modern world. You can stretch your studies across a vast geographical area, from Roman Britain to the Black Sea, Persia, Egypt and North Africa, and cover other topics including literature, art, archaeology and philosophy alongside history.

Your ancient history degree will start with a required module that covers the period from 1200 BC to AD 600. Designed to give you a solid background in ancient history, this module will introduce you to the subject and give you a taste of what you could research further during your course.

During this required module, you will begin to study ancient history by looking across three continents, from the fall of Bronze Age empires to the formation of the classical Greek world, the rise of the Roman Empire and its influence after its fall. You will also acquaint yourself with the textual and material evidence on which this history is based and examine recent interpretations of the period.

The rest of the first year of your degree will be decided by your optional modules. You’ll choose from introductory modules that will familiarise you with topics such as art and archaeology in Greece and Rome, Greek and Latin literature and thought, and the reception of the Greek world in later periods.

You’ll also have the opportunity to study an ancient language as part of your Ancient History BA. It’s possible to start Ancient Greek or Latin as a total beginner or to continue your previous study in languages. If you don’t want to learn an ancient language, you’ll be able to study in translation.