Ancient History and Greek

Ancient history is the study of civilisations that shaped the world we inhabit, from the city-states of archaic Greece to the vast administrative machinery of the Roman empire. Pairing it with the study of ancient Greek gives you direct access to the primary sources on which our understanding of that world is built, allowing you to read Homer, Thucydides, Plato, and Sappho in the language in which they wrote rather than relying on the interpretations of translators. The combination is one of the most intellectually demanding and rewarding in the humanities, training you to think rigorously about evidence, argument, and historical causation while engaging with texts and artefacts of enduring power.

At St Andrews, this four-year full-time MA (Hons) explores the history of Greece and Rome and of neighbouring peoples such as the Persians and Carthaginians, covering the period from the emergence of Greek writing and urbanism in the eighth century BCE through to the collapse of the western Roman empire in the fifth century CE. Geographically, your studies will range across a Mediterranean world that at different periods stretched from the Persian Gulf to the Clyde and from the Crimea to the Sahara. You will engage with political, military, social, and cultural history, studying the ancient world from multiple angles and developing your ability to work critically with both literary and material evidence.

The programme includes a year abroad, offering you the experience of studying ancient history and classical languages in a different scholarly environment. The typical entry tariff is 200 UCAS points.

Graduates of ancient history and classical languages degrees are among the most flexible and analytically capable in the humanities job market. The combination of linguistic precision, historical thinking, and textual analysis opens doors in law, the civil service, academia, publishing, journalism, museum work, heritage management, and teaching. Many graduates continue to postgraduate study in ancient history, classics, archaeology, or related disciplines.