BA Ancient & Modern History | Final Honour School (Second Years) - Course Handbook

2024-26

Welcome!

This handbook applies to students starting the Final Honour School in Ancient and Modern History in Michaelmas Term 2024, for examination in Trinity Term 2026.

Welcome to the Final Honour School of Ancient and Modern History. You have probably completed Prelims in History or one of its joint schools, and therefore know your way around Oxford and the academic requirements of the History school. The next two years will enable you to use the skills acquired in the first year to study in much greater depth and breadth, both drilling down much more fully into societies and their surviving sources, and ranging more widely around the world to make bigger connections between the various parts of your accumulating knowledge.

You will become theoretically more sophisticated, and methodologically more competent, which will culminate in writing your own piece of research, and also enable many of you to take on further study in History or perhaps another academic discipline. You will also continue to develop the more general abilities and transferable skills which will equip you to tackle the very wide range of careers open to History graduates.

It is perhaps worth emphasizing here that the final year of the course is very intensive, with both the special subject to be tackled in all its detail, and a thesis to be written, before revision and the final exams. It is therefore important not only to make some time for academic work in the long vacation between the second and third years, but also to ensure that your second-year work is in a good state before the final year, since there will be no time for it in the first two terms of that year.

What follows is the Faculty’s formal Handbook to guide you through the Final Honour School: as well as basic information about facilities and resources and official regulations about courses and examinations, it includes fuller guidance to help you choose amongst the various options, and advice on a range of matters which are new to the course at this stage, such as designing and writing a thesis, professional referencing, and tackling special-subject sources through the specialized practice of writing ‘gobbets’. You will of course also receive plenty of information and guidance from your colleges too, and ideally Faculty and colleges will complement each other.

You probably won’t want to read the Handbook all at once, but do consider its contents so that you know what is available for reference in the course of the next two years; and there may be sections which catch your eye now as of particular interest or relevance to you. We hope that you will continue to make the most of the opportunity of reading History at Oxford, and to enjoy doing so.

Dr Ian Archer and Prof Lucy Wooding
(Directors of Undergraduate Studies, History)

Prof. Peter Thonemann
(Chair of the Sub-Faculty of Ancient History)

The information in this handbook may be different for students starting in other years. This is version 1.0 of the Final Honour School in Ancient and Modern History Handbook, published online in October 2022.

If there is a conflict between information in this handbook and the Examination Regulations then you should follow the Examination Regulations.

If you have any concerns please contact the History Faculty Undergraduate Office: undergraduate.office@history.ox.ac.uk.

The information in this handbook is accurate as at date of publication; however it may be necessary for changes to be made in certain circumstances, as explained at http://www.ox.ac.uk/coursechanges and http://www.graduate.ox.ac.uk/coursechanges.

If such changes are made the department will publish a new version of this handbook together with a list of the changes and students will be informed.

The Final Honour School of Ancient and Modern History is a two-year course run by the Faculty of History and Faculty of Classics.

The course consists of eight papers. The formal Examination Regulations may be found at Appendix 1. The next sections briefly describe the eight units, and full descriptions of each paper are available on Canvas at the links below.

The knowledge and skills you will acquire over the whole course are outlined in Section 2 | Teaching and Learning, which build upon the basic skills you will have developed in the first year.

1| Course Content and Structure

The second and third years of studying Ancient and Modern History will present you with challenges different from those of the first year, and should be still more demanding and absorbing. You will continue to study ‘outline’ papers, taught through lectures and regular tutorials which require you to read both widely and deeply, to write essays that answer the question set, and to engage actively in discussion. But both the nature and the teaching of your courses will diversify. ‘Disciplines of History’ is almost entirely taught in college classes, while the document-based Further Subject may be your first encounter with Faculty classes; in both you will learn to give formal class presentations and to play a constructive role in larger group discussion. In the second year you will also start to design your thesis-project, a piece of independent historical research of your own. Third-year work is therefore dominated by detailed work with primary sources, whether through the set-source- intensive Special Subjects or the thesis which you will research and write in the final Hilary Term. Yet this range of historical experience will also inform broader thinking about the nature of historical writing which will inform further preparation for Disciplines of History.

In the next two years you will therefore be expected to extend your range as a historian, to enhance the subtlety of your thinking and to sharpen and polish your writing. In the second year, when the final examination may seem a deceptively distant prospect, you should be prepared to experiment intellectually, in your choice of papers and in the way that you approach different types of historical question. In the third year, with Finals imminent, you will find that the creative opportunities as well as the demands of the course are at their highest. Those who have made good and imaginative use of the second year will profit most from the opportunities of the third.

As in the first year, it is important to dedicate time in each vacation to consolidate the previous term’s work, in preparation for college collections, and also to begin work on your next paper. In the Long Vacation after the second year you will need both to do some of your thesis-research and read through the texts prescribed for your Special Subject.

Assessment also diversifies in History Finals. There are between five and seven three-hour exams sat at the end of the course, but also up to two sets of written work submitted over the course of Final Honours School. Most Ancient History papers, and modern History of the British Isles, European & World History and Further Subject papers adopt the standard format of three essays in three hours, in the last case with the requirement to answer on both source-focused and more thematic questions; Disciplines of History asks for two essays in that time, and the first paper of the Special Subject requires twelve commentaries on set-text passages (or ‘gobbets’) to be written in the exam.

Modern Special Subjects and The Greek City in the Roman World from Dio Chrysostom to John Chrysostom are also assessed by an extended essay of no more than 6,000 words submitted by Friday of Week 0 in Hilary Term of the third year. For all AMH students, a 12,000-word thesis is due by Friday of Week 8 of Hilary Term. It is also possible to write an optional additional thesis, meaning that your lowest mark in Finals (of 50 or more) would be disregarded in your classification.

There are various ways in which your choices may be limited in the Final Honour School:

  1. You may balance the Ancient and Modern elements of your course according to taste, except that you must take one ancient Outline paper and one modern Outline or Theme paper; and either your Special or your Further Subject must be ancient. Otherwise, your thesis may be in any period, and your other Further/Special subject may be ancient or modern. Apart from Disciplines of History, which should consider both sides, of the remaining six papers (Special Subjects counting as two) you can therefore take up to five in ancient subjects, or up to four modern ones.
  2. Capping of Further and Special Subjects. In order to ensure that there is adequate teaching provision, some of the more popular History Further and Special Subjects have to be ‘capped’ at a pre-determined number of takers for the year. The definitive lists of available Further and Special Subjects and their capacity will be sent to students before they make their choices; there is then a randomized ballot to determine the distribution of students in cases where applications exceed places. Further Subjects applications are currently processed at the beginning of the second year in Michaelmas Term (with the exception of some joint school students who may choose them in their final year). Special Subjects applications are currently processed at the start of Trinity Term of the final year (again the year may vary for some joint school students).
  3. Overlap: While you are encouraged to cross-fertilize between different papers so as to enhance your historical thinking, there are some slight limits on the use you can make of material derived from one paper in answering questions in others. Furthermore, your thesis cannot be primarily based on the same sources as your Further or Special Subject. See below 3.2 Examination Conventions, ‘Overlap’, for precise detail on this point.
  4. If you choose a European & World History paper in Finals it must not overlap with the one you took in Prelims. Here is a list of the illegal combinations:
EWP1 The Transformation of the Ancient World, 370-900

with EWF1 The World of Late Antiquity, 250-650

or EWF2 The Early Medieval World, 600-1000
EWP2 Communities, Connections and Confrontations, 1000-1300 with EWF3 The Central Middle Ages, 900-1300
EWP3 Renaissance, Recovery, and Reform, 1400-1650

with EWF5 The Late Medieval World, 1300-1525

or EWF6 Early Modern Europe, 1500-1700
EWP4 Society, Nation, and Empire, 1815-1914 and EWF10 The European Century, 1820-1925

Please be aware of these limits on your choices from the outset. It is your responsibility, and not your tutors’, to ensure that your choices fall within the regulations.

In general, please remember that the arrangement of your teaching, and particularly of tutorials, is a complex business, over which tutors take a great deal of time and trouble. When your tutor asks you to make a choice, do so promptly, and at all events by the date specified: otherwise it may not be possible to arrange teaching in the subject you want.

Here is an approximate guide to which papers you will be studying in which term throughout your second and third years:

 

 

Year 2

Year 3

MT

Ancient, British or European & World History

Special Subject

HT

Further Subject

Thesis

TT

Ancient, British or European & World History

Revision and Exams

NB There is no set term in which Disciplines of History is studied, and Colleges vary in the timetable with which they teach it; however classes and/or tutorials will be available over at least two out of the six terms.

The programme aims to enable its students to:

  • acquire a knowledge and understanding of humanity in past societies and of historical processes, characterised by both range and depth, and increasing conceptual sophistication;
  • approach the past through the work of a wide variety of historians, using a range of intellectual tools; and thus appreciate how History as a subject itself has developed in different societies;
  • learn the technical skills of historical investigation and exposition, above all how primary evidence is employed in historical argument;
  • enhance a range of intellectual skills, such as independent critical thinking, forensic analysis, imagination and creativity;
  • perhaps learn or develop languages, or numerical tools;
  • analyse and argue persuasively in writing, and engage in interactive oral discussion to deepen understanding;
  • develop the ability to work independently, and to plan and organize time effectively.

Please see the dropdowns below (§1.3.1-7) for detailed information on the papers taken in the FHS.

Victory over Persia led to the rise of the Athenian Empire, conflict between Athens and Sparta and Sparta’s eventual victory in the Peloponnesian War. These years cover the transition from archaic to classical Greece, the Periclean age of Athens, the masterpieces of art, architecture and literature which are the supreme legacies of the Greek world, the contrasting lifestyles of Sparta and democratic Athens, and the careers of Alcibiades, Socrates and their famous contemporaries. They are studied predominantly through the

History of Thucydides, antiquity’s most masterly analysis of empire, inter-state relations and war, which Thucydides claimed to have written, justifiably, as ‘a possession for all times’. The issue of Thucydides’ own bias and viewpoint and his shaping of his History remain among the storm centres of the study of antiquity and are of far-reaching significance for our understanding of the moral, intellectual and political changes in the Greek world. The period is also studied through inscriptions, whose context and content are a fascinating challenge to modern historians.

Lectures on this period of Greek History normally take place in Michaelmas Term.

Greek History in the years immediately after the Peloponnesian War is no longer dominated by the two super-powers, Athens and Sparta. Cities which in the fifth century had been constrained by them acquired independence; groups of small cities, such as Arcadia and Boiotia, co-ordinated their actions to become significant players in inter-city politics. Areas in which the city was not highly developed, and particularly Thessaly and then Macedon, were sufficiently united by energetic rulers to play a major role in the politics of mainland Greece, and the manipulation of relations with Persia preoccupied much of Greek diplomacy. This society gave rise to the political theorising of Plato and Aristotle.

The absence of dominant cities in the fourth century is paralleled by the absence of a single dominant source. Students of this period have at their disposal two works which imitate Thucydides, Xenophon’s Hellenica and the Hellenica Oxyrhynchia, pamphlets and speeches by Isokrates and Demosthenes aimed at influencing Athenian politics, specialist studies of military matters, such as Aeneas’ Poliorcemata, and of particular cities, such as Xenophon’s account of the Spartan Constitution, and an abundance of epigraphic material. The compilations of later historians and biographers, such as Diodorus and Plutarch, who worked from earlier texts now lost to us, provide further information: through these later works we have access to contemporary accounts of high quality that illuminate the history of such places as Thebes and Syracuse.

The wealth of varied information, the multiplication of sources, and the need to weave together the stories of many different cities, present a challenge quite distinct from that offered by earlier periods of Greek history. The importance of the events of the period for our understanding of Plato and Aristotle, on the one hand, and of the history of Greek art, on the other, ensures that the complexities of the study bring ample rewards.

Lectures on this period of Greek History normally take place in Hilary Term.

In 146 the Romans destroyed Carthage and Corinth. In 133 a popular tribune was beaten to death in front of the Capitol by a mob led by the High Priest. At the other end of the period, in 49 Julius Caesar crossed the Rubicon, and in 46 crushed his enemies at the battle of Thapsus, celebrating his victory with an unprecedented quadruple triumph.

Despite repeated deeply threatening crises, Rome survived – capital of an increasingly large and organized Mediterranean-wide empire, its constantly growing populace more and more diverse, its richest citizens vastly wealthier, and its cityscape more and more monumental. But the tradition of the ancestors, the rule of the aristocracy, the armies and their recruitment, the sources of wealth, the cultural horizons of the literate, the government of allies and subjects, the idea of a Roman citizen, the landscape of Italy, and Roman identity itself had all changed forever. This subject studies how.

For the earlier years, from the Gracchi to the Social War, we mainly have to rely on the writings of later historians and on contemporary inscriptions, although Sallust and Cicero offer some near-contemporary illumination. But for the latter part of this period our knowledge is of a different quality from that of almost any other period of Roman history thanks to the intimate light shed by the correspondence, speeches and other works of Cicero, with strong backing from Caesar’s Gallic War and the surviving works of Sallust.

Lectures on this period of Roman History normally take place in Hilary and Trinity Terms.

Beginning this period in 46 BC immediately presents us with issues of uneasy adjustment and faltering responses to shattering social and political change. The Civil War, fought from one end of the Mediterranean to another, raised problems about the nature of Urbs and Orbis, city and world, and their relations. Caesar drew his own solutions from the widest cultural range. The first years of the period set the scene for the developing drama of the transformation of every aspect of the societies of the Mediterranean world ruled from Rome, and of the identity of Rome itself, as experiment, setback and new accommodation succeeded each other in the hands of the generals of the continuing war-years, and finally, after Actium, of Augustus and his advisors. The central problems of this subject concern the dynasty, charisma and authority of the Roman Emperor, the institutions of the Roman provincial empire, and the most intensely creative age of Roman art and Latin literature, and how these were related. The sequel addresses very different rulers. Tiberius, Gaius Caligula and Claudius, whose reigns did much to shape the idea of an imperial system and its historiography, which we sample through Tacitus and the biographies of Suetonius, and the virulent satirical sketch by Seneca of Claudius’ death and deification. The subject invites consideration of the changing relations of Greek and Roman, and the increasing unity of the Mediterranean world; and also of the social and economic foundations of the Roman state in the city of Rome and in the towns and countryside of the Italy of the Georgics and Eclogues. Within Roman society, political change was accompanied by upward social mobility and by changes in the cultural representations of status, gender and power which pose complex and rich questions for the historian.

Lectures on this period of Roman History normally take place in Michaelmas and Hilary Terms.

Please see the Classics Faculty Canvas page for the equivalent Finals papers for further resources, where they are listed under ‘Ancient History FHS’. Note that this course is examined for AMH by a single essay paper, without translation, gobbets, or a division of the essay questions into sections A and B. The Classics Faculty Canvas pages include nonetheless a set of relevant primary texts and a dossier of epigraphic documents: these are not formally prescribed for AMH students, but you are strongly encouraged to make full use of both in translation, and to attend the biennial Classics lectures on the ‘Documents' for the relevant period. 

The History of the British Isles outline papers will be familiar from Prelims. You are not permitted to take the same period, and the paper will be different in a number of different ways. There are seven period papers and two Theme papers.

You will have some freedom to follow your own interests in the period. In the knowledge that there will be a wide range of questions, and time to do some extra reading, you will be able to probe the history of different societies in the British Isles, and to prioritise political, intellectual, social, cultural or economic history as you choose. Indeed, Finals British History has always demanded greater depth, in terms of closer engagement with specific issues in the period, of reading in monographic literature and perhaps in primary sources too, and of greater historiographical awareness. You therefore have some scope to shape your own course and can take the initiative in discussing with your tutor what you wish to cover during the term.

Nevertheless, the most impressive scripts will also demonstrate breadth – in terms both of the whole chronology of the period and the differences and similarities between the various parts of the British Isles. And they will be imbued with a sense of the interaction of different types of development – economic, cultural, social, intellectual and political. Your tutorial preparation should not therefore be too narrow in chronological, geographical or thematic terms.

Whereas outline papers encourage you to study one period in depth, Theme papers challenge you to study an issue or problem in depth across chronological and geographical boundaries. You will be able to explore how a theme (such as gender and sexuality or the state and national identity) manifests itself in different ways across time and space, and how it has been approached by historians who have very different skills and interests.

Course information for each of the period options available can be found at: https://canvas.ox.ac.uk/courses/22235/modules/items/283275

Teaching: 8-16 Lectures in Michaelmas Term; 4 lectures in Trinity Term (except for BIF7, for which there are 8); 8 tutorials over one or two terms, each with an essay. Tutors will not be permitted to read drafts of the exam essays, and students will not receive any further help from their tutors once the exam questions have been published.

Assessment: A three-hour written examination takes place during Trinity Term. This accounts for one seventh of the overall mark.

European & World History is divided into fourteen periods, which cover the whole of European history and its engagement with the non-European world from the fall of Rome until 1973, with additional papers in American and global history. You can study times and places not covered in the Preliminary year, and periods are studied in greater depth, requiring you to examine the distinctive features of individual societies as well as to grasp broad themes. There are in addition four Theme papers, which challenge you to study an issue or problem in depth across chronological and geographical boundaries. You will be able to explore how a theme (such as gender and sexuality, technology, religion and war) manifests itself in different ways across time and space, and how it has been approached by historians who have very different skills and interests.

Where European & World History in Prelims was designed to be studied in thematic and broadly comparative topics, the Schools papers encourage you to develop a comparative understanding on more specific foundations. In most papers the subjects of tutorial essays are likely to be a mixture of territorially and politically specific topics and broader connecting themes. As in your British Isles History papers you should take the initiative in devising your tutorial programme so that it makes the most of both your own and your tutor’s interests.

Course information for each of the European & World History options available can be found at: https://canvas.ox.ac.uk/courses/22235/modules/items/283281

Teaching: 8 tutorials over one or two terms, with submitted essays or essay plans for discussion, or 8 classes.

Assessment: A 3-hour written examination takes place during Trinity Term. This accounts for one seventh of the overall mark.

History Further Subjects will normally be studied by candidates in the second year, and in the great majority of cases the teaching is in Hilary Term. Please note that finalists may not attend Further Subject classes again in their final year.

The Further Subjects have been designed to extend and deepen your knowledge of particular subject areas, topics and themes in British and European & World History. They are intended to be document- and text-based, requiring you to engage with the range of primary material relevant to the subject, to elucidate its significance and to relate it to the scholarly literature. There are over thirty Further Subjects to choose from, ranging geographically across the globe, and conceptually from archaeology to political and social thought. They enable you to study subjects in which members of the Faculty are themselves actively engaged in research, and your choice may well arouse interests which you yourself wish to pursue subsequently. Although it is by no means obligatory, many students do study a Further Subject related to one or more of their British or European & World History papers in the Final Honour School: candidates in Finals are positively encouraged to relate, where appropriate, knowledge gained from their Further Subject to questions set in their outline papers or in Disciplines of History.

Further Subjects in Modern History are usually taught in a combination of six tutorials (arranged by your college tutors) and six university classes (arranged through the Faculty by the Convenor for the Subject). Each class is taken by one or two Faculty members who are experts in the field, sometimes assisted by graduate students researching relevant topics. As in the Special Subjects, the classes provide an invaluable opportunity to learn the skills of working effectively in a group; during the course of the term’s classes you will normally be expected to write and deliver at least one paper, to open the class discussion. Please read the section on Forms of Teaching in chapter two for guidance on how to get the best out of class teaching. Revision teaching is not normally provided, but Further Subjects may be included in the two hours of tutorial teaching normally used for British and General History.

Further Subjects are examined in a single paper in the Final Honour School. You are required to answer three questions, including at least one from both Section A and Section B, and to illustrate your answers as appropriate by reference to the prescribed texts. Questions in Section A are normally derived more directly from the prescribed texts. You should consult past examination papers in the subjects in which you are interested in order to gain an idea of what they involve. These are available in the History Faculty Library and in many college libraries, as well as through: http://www.oxam.ox.ac.uk.

CAPPING OF CERTAIN HISTORY FURTHER SUBJECTS

The number of students who can take each paper is determined by the teaching resources available to each subject. Some are therefore ‘capped’, and where demand for these exceeds the number of places, students are allocated by a random ballot. Students choosing such subjects therefore need to have backup choices, at least one of which must be a subject which is unlikely to fill its quota: such subjects are flagged on the ballot-form. This process takes place early in Michaelmas Term of the second year.

Course information for each of the History Further Subjects available can be found at: https://canvas.ox.ac.uk/courses/22235/modules/items/283284

Teaching: 6 tutorials and 6 classes, held over Hilary Term of year 2.

Assessment: A 3-hour written examination takes place during Trinity Term of year 3.

The Further Subject paper accounts for one seventh of the overall mark.

Further Subjects in Ancient History are taught in a variety of formats, in most cases via tutorials and in others through a university class. Ancient History Further Subjects to be taught in Hilary Term 2024 (unless listed as suspended) are:

  • 409: The Hellenistic World: societies and cultures, c.300 BC–100 BC
  • 411: Politics, Society and Culture from Nero to Hadrian
  • 412: Religions in the Greek and Roman World, c.31 BC-AD 312
  • 415: The Achaemenid Empire, 550-330 BC
  • 457: Athenian democracy in the Classical Age 
  • 601: The Greeks and the Mediterranean World c.950-500 BC
  • 603: Hellenistic Art and Archaeology, 330-30 BC
  • 605: Art under the Roman Empire, AD 14-337
  • 633: Etruscan Italy

Course information for papers 409, 411, 412, 415, 601, 603 and 605 can be found in the Course Handbook for Literae Humaniores (Greats), available on the Classics Faculty website under the tab ‘For Students’. Course information for paper 633, Etruscan Italy, can be found in the Course Handbook for FHS in Classical Archaeology & Ancient History, on the same web page.

Paper 457 is different for Ancient and Modern History, so the course description and set texts are given here:

457: Athenian Democracy in the Classical Age

This subject includes the constitutional, social, economic and cultural history of Athens from 462 to 321 BC. The paper will range over such topics as the workings of the Assembly and Council, military organization, the development of political leadership, the workings of the Athenian law courts, legal procedure and the law code, citizenship, theoretical attitudes to democracy and its alternatives, public festivals and public entertainments, attitudes to religion and the rights of the individual, freedom of speech, kinship organizations and the position of women, the provision of education, the status of metics, slavery, the workings of taxation and liturgy systems, the organization of trade (especially the corn trade), the characteristics of Athenian manufacturing industry and the workings of the silver mines.

Opportunity is given to study the archaeology of classical Athens. Only such knowledge of external affairs is expected as is necessary for an understanding of the workings of the democracy.

All texts are available in translation; the texts prescribed for special study are not examined by compulsory passages, though optional passages are set together with essay questions specifically on the texts, and candidates are expected to show knowledge of the texts in their answers.

Prescribed Texts:

  • Aristotle, Constitution of Athens (tr. P.J. Rhodes, Penguin Classics).
  • Herodotus, III. 80–2 (Loeb).
  • Thucydides , I. 31–44, 66–79, 140–5; II. 35–65; III. 35–50, 82–83; V. 43–46;  VI. 8–29; VIII. 47–97 (tr. S. Lattimore, in The Peloponnesian War Indianapolis: Hackett, 1998)
  • Xenophon,  Hellenica 1. 6 and 7; II. 3 and 4 (Loeb). 
    • Memorabilia I. 1 and 2; III. 6 (Loeb). 
    • Revenues (tr. P.J. Rhodes, Loeb).
    • Constitution of Athens (Loeb).
  • Andocides, I (Loeb, Minor Attic Orators I ).
  • Lysias , XXII, XXV (Loeb).
  • Aeschines,  II (Loeb).
  • Demosthenes, VI, XIX, LIX (Loeb).
  • Aristophanes,  Wasps, Clouds, Ecclesiazusae, Acharnians 1–173, 
  • Thesmophoriazusae 295–530 (Penguin Classics).
  • Plato,  Apology, Gorgias, Protagoras 309–28 (Penguin Classics).
  • Aeschylus, Eumenides (tr. D. Grene & R. Lattimore. The Complete Greek  Tragedies , Chicago, 1958-9).
  • Sophocles,  Antigone (tr. D. Grene & R. Lattimore. The Complete Greek Tragedies, Chicago, 1958-9).
  • Euripides,  Supplices (tr. D. Grene & R. Lattimore. The Complete Greek Tragedies, Chicago, 1958-9).
  • C.W. Fornara, Translated Documents of Greece and Rome. I, nos. 15, 68, 75, 97, 100, 103, 106, 114, 119, 120, 128, 134, 140, 147, 155, 160,  166.
  • P. Harding, Translated Documents of Greece and Rome II, nos. 3, 5, 9, 45, 47, 54, 55, 56, 66, 78, 82, 101, 108, 111, 121.
 

 

Special Subjects are normally studied by candidates in History and its Joint Schools in their third year; in the great majority of cases the teaching is done in the Michaelmas term of the third year.

The Ancient History Special Subjects to be taught in 2024-25 (unless listed as suspended) are:

458: Alexander the Great and his Early Successors (336-302 bc) (two papers)

Assessment: Paper 1 (Gobbets): A 3-hour written examination at the end of the Trinity Term of year 3, requiring twelve commentaries to be written. This paper accounts for one seventh of the overall mark. Paper 2 (Essays): A 3-hour written examination at the end of the Trinity Term of year 3, requiring three essays. This paper accounts for one seventh of the overall mark.

 

460: Cicero: Politics and Thought in the Late Republic (two papers)

Assessment: Paper 1 (Gobbets): A 3-hour written examination at the end of the Trinity Term of year 3, requiring twelve commentaries to be written. This paper accounts for one seventh of the overall mark. Paper 2 (Essays): A 3-hour written examination at the end of the Trinity Term of year 3, requiring three essays. This paper accounts for one seventh of the overall mark.

461: The Greek City in the Roman World from Dio Chrysostom to John Chrysostom.

This option will be examined by a 3-hour commentary paper and an extended essay of between 5,000 and 6,000 words (including footnotes but excluding bibliography). The essay shall be on a topic or theme selected by the candidate from a question paper published by the examiners on Friday of Week 4 of Michaelmas Term in the year of examination. The candidate must submit the essay no later than 12 noon on Friday of Week 0 of Hilary Term of the year of examination. The University’s regulations on Late Submission of Work will apply.

Course information for each of the Ancient History Special Subjects can be found at: https://canvas.ox.ac.uk/courses/48796

 

Teaching: 8 classes, up to 4 tutorials, and lectures, held over Michaelmas Term of year 3.

Assessment: For more information on the nature of gobbets and extended essays see below.

Special Subjects get you the closest to the scholarly study of a subject of all the prescribed papers in the History School. This depth is signalled by the fact that the paper is examined in two ways, and counts for two-sevenths of your Final mark. Your comprehension of how historians use sources is extended beyond that required in the Further Subject, and your knowledge of the set texts will be the focus of the written exam. The exam paper requires

you to write short commentaries or ‘gobbets’ on brief unseen excerpts from the set sources, in order to decode the full meaning of the passage, its context both textual (or material) and factual, and its place in the scholarship. In most subjects, you also have the opportunity to arrive at your own conclusions about the subject through your Extended Essay based on the sources. Some subjects constitute their teacher’s current research project, and in discussion and through your writing you may be able to contribute to their work.

In the modern subjects the balance between (college) tutorials and (Faculty) classes tips further towards the latter, of which there are eight, weekly through the final Michaelmas Term. There are up to six tutorials, of which four are commonly used for the writing of essays or ‘gobbets’, and one or two for individual advice on your Extended Essay. On the basis of even more detailed and intensive study of the material you will be able to deploy your skills in discussion and presentation from the Further Subject and Disciplines, and thus take more control of class- and tutorial-discussion; indeed, it is to be hoped that students will learn more from each other than their teachers. (Note that subjects vary in whether they require the writing of essays for tutorials or the giving of presentations in classes, and whether they focus preparation for gobbet-writing on tutorials or classes.)

In most subjects, the Extended Essay provides you with the opportunity not only to demonstrate your knowledge of an aspect of the subject in very great depth, encompassing both the relevant sources and historiography, but also to come to your own conclusions on the basis of close study of these. As a short scholarly piece of work, it also acts as a warm-up to the thesis you will write in the following term, not least in that it requires proper academic presentation and referencing. The guidelines for these are the same as those for the thesis (see section 1.4 below); the lecture on thesis-preparation offered to second years is also relevant to this essay. The eight-question paper is published half-way through term, and you then receive individual tutorial advice to help choose a question and refine your approach to it, and to discuss a plan. The tutor or class teacher is permitted to read and comment on a plan, but not a draft, of the essay. The essay must be submitted digitally via Inspera by 12 noon on Friday of week 0 of the following Hilary term. Instructions on how to submit your work will be sent out in the course of Michaelmas Term.

The three-hour exam paper taken at the end of the course requires you to write commentaries on twelve out of twenty-four short passages or images from the prescribed sources. There are guidelines on the writing of gobbets below (Appendix 5). The key aim is to elucidate the passage in a number of different but connected ways: the essential meaning of the passage (including any technical terminology), its place within its text or location or the oeuvre of its author, how it relates to other evidence, and how it has been used and understood in the scholarship. You only have fifteen minutes to write each gobbet, and the structure of the paper requires you to answer across the whole range of the set sources. This therefore requires a very thorough knowledge of the texts, and is one reason why reading them all in the long vacation before the Michaelmas Term is important.

Capping: As with Further Subjects, the number of students who can take each paper is determined by the teaching resources available to each subject. Some are therefore ‘capped’, and where demand for these exceeds the number of places, students are allocated by a random ballot. Students choosing such subjects therefore need to have backup choices, at least one of which must be a subject which is unlikely to fill its quota: such subjects are flagged on the ballot-form. This process takes place in the course of Trinity Term of the second year.

Teaching: 6 tutorials and 8 classes, held over Michaelmas Term of year 3.

Assessment:

Paper 1 (Gobbets): A 3-hour written examination during Trinity Term of year 3. This paper accounts for one seventh of the overall mark.

Paper 2 (Extended Essay): an extended essay of not more than 6,000 words, to be submitted by Friday of week 0 of the Hilary Term of year 3. This paper accounts for one seventh of the overall mark.

For further information about individual papers go to: https://canvas.ox.ac.uk/courses/22235/modules/items/283288

Disciplines of History, the general paper in Finals, has one broad and two specific aims. It is in part a mechanism for drawing together all your work over three years and reflecting on it from different perspectives. To this extent it functions partly as a revision tool which will widen and deepen your understanding of all your individual papers. Specifically, you learn the art of historical comparison, so that material from different societies becomes mutually illuminating; and you add a layer of comprehension to the reading you have done throughout the course by contextualizing it in the history and theory of historical writing. The rules of overlap are suspended for this paper so as to encourage you to draw on all the historical work you have done. The paper is divided into two sections.

On the face of it, Comparative History might seem to have a universalizing function, to highlight features of human experience which seem constant and unchanging over long periods and in very different societies. On closer inspection, however, it is hard not to discern differences between societies even in what might seem to be basic human experiences. Comparison therefore offers a tool for thinking about why societies differ, especially when in many ways they appear similar: differences become the more noticeable against the background of many similarities.

Preparation for this paper is thus more a matter of technique than of new information. In the first instance you should concentrate on deploying your pre-existing knowledge in order to make effective comparisons, although once you have started on a comparison it may, of course, draw you into additional reading as gaps in your knowledge appear. The art of comparison lies in identifying both the bases of similar features in the societies under comparison, and the variable factors which produce differences. Choosing your examples is therefore crucial, and the logic behind this is something that is worth being explicit about in your essays. The societies compared must share certain identified qualities or experiences in order to be a useful basis for comparison.

Choosing examples that are widely disparate from each other in time and space can make it more challenging to find meaningful points of comparison – but equally might produce more unexpected conclusions. The rubric of this section asks you to compare historically distinct societies, separated by either time or space. How far they are separated is up to you and excellent results can be obtained from a close scrutiny of neighbouring societies.

However, students who draw on the full range of their papers may find that they arrive at more imaginative conclusions: remember that the assessment criteria specifically reward the ‘effective and appropriate use of historical imagination and curiosity’. As for the number of case studies, there is a balance here to be struck between including enough diversity to allow interesting conclusions to emerge and allowing enough space in order to properly introduce and analyse your cases. Some students find they prefer working with two cases, others with three. Students should also feel free to make remarks indicating a broader frame of reference. Note, however, that the basis of good comparison, as of all historical study is the precise knowledge of particular cases.

There will be 22 questions in this section. The following list suggests a range of subject areas which the examiners might address. However, no specific topic is guaranteed to come up in any particular paper.

  • The Arts: Visual, Drama, Music
  • Orality & Literacy, Education
  • Crime, Punishment, The Law, Judicial Systems
  • Family, Marriage & Household
  • Gender & Sexuality
  • Body & Disabilities
  • Religion, Belief, Conversion, Persecution, Toleration
  • Ritual, Custom, Myths
  • Class & Status
  • Slavery, Serfdom, Underclasses
  • Globalisation & Development
  • Markets & Consumerism
  • Environment, Urbanisation, Town & Country
  • Identities, National, Ethnic, Geographical
  • Political Ideas & Ideologies
  • State-Building, Government, Bureaucracy
  • Revolutions, Régime Change, Riots
  • Empires, Centre-periphery
  • Diplomacy & International Relations
  • Science, Technology & Medicine
  • Migration & Diaspora
  • Ethnic Violence & Genocide

The second section of the paper is historiographical. It requires you to reflect upon the question ‘how do historians make history?’ This question can be approached both from below – how are sources used in historical writing? – and from above – what views have historians held about the way in which history should be approached? Indeed these angles can be considered together, given that particular approaches to history often privilege particular sources. The focus of this section is therefore on the great variety of ways in which history has been and is written, in terms of different subject-matter, sources, genre, motivation and historical context. The writing of history must itself be historicized, over as much as two-and-a-half millennia. (First-year Historiography and Foreign Texts may come in useful here.) Moreover the influences on history from other disciplines and theories will feature significantly, especially in more recent history: first-year Approaches can be developed in this context.

You will receive some specific teaching so as to learn more about different schools of history – their historical context, interests, methods, influences, forms and sources. But it is essential that as well as reading about these approaches you read examples of them; exam- essays that offer generalised reproduction of textbook accounts of (say) the Annales school or ‘whig’ history will score poorly. Moreover, the real aim is to sensitize you to the kinds of influences which have shaped all the historical writing you have encountered through the course. By the end of three years you will, after all, have read many many books and articles, and this, as with the first section, will therefore provide much of the material for thinking about this section of the paper. And again, this will feed back into your specific papers by increasing the sophistication of your awareness of why historians write as they do. You will also develop your ability to integrate sources into historiographical analysis as you deepen your contact with them through the Further and Special Subjects and your thesis.

There will be 28 questions in this section. The following list suggests a range of subject areas which the examiners might address. However, no specific topic is guaranteed to come up in any particular paper. Past papers are available on OXAM.

  • Material Culture & Archaeology
  • Space & Place
  • Environmental History
  • Marxism
  • Economic & Quantitative History
  • Social History & History of Everyday Life
  • Historical Anthropology & Microhistory
  • Cultural History
  • Literature in History Gender & the Body
  • History of Sexuality History of Emotions
  • History of Science, Medicine & Technology
  • Race & Postcolonialism
  • Visual Sources & Methods
  • Memory & Tradition
  • Oral History
  • The Self
  • Intellectual History
  • Religious Historiography
  • Political History & Political Culture
  • Global & International History
  • Atlantic History & European History
  • National Traditions
  • Public History
  • The Classical Tradition
  • Genres of Historical Writing
  • Archives

The standard rules against overlap do not apply to either section of Disciplines of History. You may use any work you have done, including in your thesis, as sources for your arguments in the examination.

Teaching: The Faculty will provide lectures on both sections of the paper, in the Hilary and Trinity terms. Colleges will offer a maximum of ten teaching sessions. Most of these will be classes but colleges may offer a maximum of two conventional tutorials. Colleges all have their own timetables for Disciplines teaching across the two years; different tutors have 

developed different teaching programmes which best reflect their strengths and convey the most benefit to their own students.

Assessment: A 3-hour written examination takes place during Trinity Term of year 3. Candidates must answer two questions, one from each section of the paper. The paper accounts for one seventh of the overall mark.

Every undergraduate taking the BA in Ancient and Modern History must submit a 12,000- word thesis on a topic of their own devising. Many undergraduates find this to be the most satisfying work they do in their History degree. The whole process from designing the topic to handing in is described in detail in the next section.

Teaching: The Faculty provides an initial lecture on framing a topic in Hilary Term of the second year, and the Thesis Fair early in Trinity Term to help suggest sources from a wide range of fields. At total of five hours of advice from college tutors and a specialist supervisor are permitted across the second and third years.

Assessment: The 12,000-word thesis is submitted by noon on Friday of 8th week of Hilary Term of the student’s final year. The thesis counts for one of seven units in Finals.

In addition any undergraduate may choose to submit a further, Optional Additional Thesis, on another subject of choice (restricted only by not overlapping in any substantive way with the compulsory thesis). The protocols governing this are the same as for the compulsory thesis, except that it is due by Monday of 1st week of the final Trinity Term.

The advantage of writing an extra thesis is that your lowest mark in Finals is disregarded: you are classified on the top seven of the eight marks you will have generated (provided that no mark is below 50). Those who are concerned about their performance in exams may find this a tempting option. On the other hand, the optional thesis must be written in your own time, largely in the vacations. Consideration must therefore be given to the effect on your other work: you are better served by producing one excellent rather than two mediocre theses, and you may end up using up valuable revision time in the Easter vacation before Finals.

The ability to engage with the primary sources in the original language is a valuable skill in the study of ancient history (and essential in the study of the subject beyond undergraduate degree level). If you have previously studied either Latin or Ancient Greek, whether at school or for Prelims, you now have the opportunity to deepen that knowledge in order to complement your study of the ancient world. These papers are optional and are studied through university classes alongside your regular papers. Classes run annually, from Michaelmas term. If you choose to sit one of these papers at Finals, then the mark will replace your lowest mark across your other papers. If you are interested in taking one of these papers you should discuss it with your college Director of Studies / Personal Tutor at the earliest opportunity.

(This paper is available only to those undergraduates who offered Beginning Ancient Greek at Prelims, and with the permission of the Joint Standing Committee, to others with equivalent knowledge of Ancient Greek. It is not normally available to candidates with a qualification in Ancient Greek above AS-level or equivalent, nor to those who took Intermediate or Advanced Greek in Prelims.)

This course is designed to continue study of the language from Beginning Ancient Greek in Prelims and to bring students to a more advanced knowledge of ancient Greek grammar and vocabulary. Candidates will be required to show an intermediate level knowledge of Greek grammar and vocabulary (including all syntax and morphology).

The set texts for the course are: Xenophon, Hellenica I-II.3.10 (Oxford Classical Text) and Lysias I (Oxford Classical Text). The paper will consist of a passage of unseen prose translation, three further passages for translation from the two prescribed texts, and grammatical questions on the prescribed texts.

(This paper is available only to those undergraduates who offered Beginning Latin at Prelims and, with the permission of the Joint Standing Committee, to others with equivalent knowledge of Latin. It is not normally available to candidates with a qualification in Latin above AS-level or equivalent, nor to those who took Intermediate or Advanced Latin in Prelims.)

This course is designed to continue study of the language from Beginning Latin in Prelims and to bring students to a more advanced knowledge of Latin grammar and vocabulary. Candidates will be required to show an intermediate level knowledge of Latin grammar and vocabulary (including all syntax and morphology).

The set texts for the course are:

Cicero, letters in D. R. Shackleton-Bailey, Cicero: Select Letters (Cambridge 1980), nos. 9, 17, 23, 27, 39. 42-3, 45, 48, 58, 63-4;

Tacitus, Agricola (Oxford Classical Text) 16-43;

Pliny, letters in A. N. Sherwin-White, Fifty Letters of Pliny, second edn. (Oxford, 1969), nos. 1-3, 6-7, 9, 15-20, 25, 27, 29, 33-4, 36, 38-40, 47-48.

(This subject is available to candidates with a qualification in Ancient Greek above AS-level or equivalent or those who took Intermediate Ancient Greek at Prelims. It is not normally available to candidates with a qualification in Ancient Greek above A-level or equivalent, nor to those who took Advanced Greek in Prelims.)

Candidates will be expected to be familiar with An Anthology of Greek Prose ed. D.A. Russell (Oxford University Press 1991), Nos. 17, 18, 23, 24, 33, 40, 44, 66, 78, from which a selection of passages will be set for translation, in addition to a passage for unseen translation.

Candidates will also be expected to translate from TWO of the following texts:

(i) Herodotus I.1-94 [ed. Wilson, OCT];

(ii) Plutarch, Life of Antony 1-9, 23-36, 71-87 [ed. Pelling, Cambridge University Press, 1988];

(iii) Euripides, Bacchae [ed. Allan and Swift, Cambridge University Press, 2024].

(This subject is available to candidates with a qualification in Latin above AS-level or equivalent or those who took Intermediate Latin at Prelims. It is not normally available to candidates with a qualification in Latin above AS-level or equivalent, nor to those who took Advanced Latin in Prelims.)

Candidates will be expected to be familiar with An Anthology of Latin Prose ed. D.A. Russell (OUP 1990), nos. 7, 12, 22, 23, 34, 52 and 63, from which a selection of passages will be set for translation, in addition to a passage for unseen translation.

Candidates will also be expected to translate from TWO of the following texts:

 

Cicero, Pro Caelio [ed. OCT].

Pliny, Letters 1.6, 9, 13, 19; VII.21, 24, 26, 29; VIII.16, 17; IX.6, 12, 15, 27, 33, 39; X.31, 32, 96, 97 (ed. M.B. Fisher and M.R. Griffin, CUP 1973)

 

Ovid, Metamorphoses 8 (ed. A.S. Hollis, OUP 1970)

These courses will be taught by Faculty classes, for three hours per week during Michaelmas and Hilary Terms.

(Convenor for Ancient Language Courses: Dr Juliane Kerkhecker, Oriel).

Those taking a language option are expected to do some preparatory work for the faculty classes; materials will be sent to students. Students may want to consider attending a Summer School in the summer before starting the course (for details see e.g. www.jact.org/events/summerschools.htm - there are also of course other summer courses available). Financial support is often available to help with the cost of these courses. Note: attending a summer school is not expected or necessary for being able to do the preparatory work.

Please note the information linked below is for guidance only.

Those taking the thesis as part of joint honours schools may well research and write their thesis at times different from those suggested below. Individual college tutors may vary the details of these arrangements, for example, by asking students to think at an earlier stage in the second year about their initial ideas for a thesis. However, it may be helpful to indicate what seems an optimal timetable, taking the student from initial thoughts about the thesis to final submission.

Appendices

Final Honour School in Ancient and Modern History, 2023-24

A 

  1. The examination in the Honour School of Ancient and Modern History shall consist of such subjects in Ancient and Modern History as the Boards of the Faculties of Classics and History from time to time shall in consultation prescribe by regulation.

  2. No candidate shall be admitted to the examination in this school unless he or she has either passed or been exempted from the First Public Examination.

  3. The examination shall be under the joint supervision of the Boards of the Faculties of Classics and History. They shall appoint a standing joint committee to consider any matters concerning the examination which cannot expeditiously be settled by direct consultation between them. Whenever any matter cannot otherwise be resolved they shall themselves hold a joint meeting and resolve it by majority vote.

  4. The lists of papers specific to the Honour School of Ancient and Modern History will be published by the Faculty Boards of Classics and History in the fourth week of Hilary Term prior to candidates beginning their studies for the School.  Papers available in this School from the Honour Schools of History and of Literae Humaniores will be published, with their specifications and any prescribed texts, by the relevant Faculty Boards at the dates defined in the regulations for those Schools.

B

Each candidate shall offer the following subjects.  Candidates must offer at least one of B3(b) or B4(b).

  • B1. A Period of Ancient History (one paper)

  • One from a list defined by the Faculty Board of Classics.

  • B2. A Period of Modern History (one paper)

  • An Outline or Theme paper in either European & World History or the History of the British Isles specified for the Honour School of History.  No candidate may offer a period similar to one offered when passing the Preliminary Examination. Illegal combinations will be specified by the Board.

  • B3. Further Subjects

    • Either

      (a) any one of the Further Subjects as specified for the Honour School of History (one paper);

      or

      (b) any one from an approved list of Further Subjects in Ancient History (one paper).

    B4. Special Subjects

    • Either

      (a) any one of the Special Subjects as specified for the Honour School of History (one paper and one extended essay);

      or

      (b) any one from an approved list of Special Subjects in Ancient History (two papers).

    B5. Disciplines of History

    Each candidate shall be examined in the Disciplines of History in accordance with Regulation B5 of the Honour School of History.

    B6. A Thesis from Original Research

    Regulation B6 of the Honour School of History applies with the following modifications:

    • Sub-clause 3.(a) (For the avoidance of doubt) the Arnold Ancient History Prize and the Barclay Head Prize in Numismatics are to be read with the schedule.

    • Sub-clause 5. For ‘Honour School of History’ read ‘Honour School of Ancient and Modern History’. For theses concerning the years before AD 285 read ‘Chair of Examiners, Honour School of Ancient and Modern History’ for ‘Chair of the Examiners, Honour School of History’.

    • Sub-clause 8. For ‘Chair of Examiners, Honour School of History’ read ‘Chair of Examiners, Honour School of Ancient and Modern History’.

  • B7.An Optional Additional Thesis

    Regulation B7 An Optional Additional Thesis of the Honour School of History shall apply with the following modifications:

    • Sub-clause 4. For dissertations concerning the years before AD 285 read ‘Chair of Examiners, Honour School of Ancient and Modern History’ for ‘Chair of the Examiners, Honour School of History’.

    • Sub-clause 7. For ‘Chair of Examiners, Honour School of History’ read ‘Chair of Examiners, Honours School of Ancient and Modern History’.

  • B8.An Optional Language Paper

    Intermediate Ancient Greek or Intermediate Latin or Advanced Ancient Greek or Advanced Latin.

    Any candidate whose native language is not English may bring a bilingual (native language to English) dictionary for use in any of the language papers offered under Regulation B8.

Contacts

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The main office contact for all undergraduate matters is: undergraduate.office@history.ox.ac.uk

History

Directors of Undergraduate Studies: Dr Ian Archer and Dr Lucy Wooding (History)

Undergraduate Officer: Andrea Hopkins

Assistant Undergraduate Officer:  Alex Vickers

Examination Officer: Isabelle Moriceau

Teaching Officer: Callum Kelly

Admissions Officer: Liz Owen

Classics

Chair of the Sub-Faculty of Ancient History: Dr Georgy Kantor (Classics)

Academic Administrative Officer: Dr Andrew Dixon

Academic Support Officer: Miss Erica Clarke

Chair of the Ancient and Modern History Joint School: To Be Confirmed

Useful Links

History Faculty Website

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Examination Regulations

Oxford Students Website

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