BA Ancient & Modern History | Preliminary Examination - Course Handbook

https://canvas.ox.ac.uk/courses/22235/modules/items/302287

HERODOTUS, V. 26–126 to be read in English and VI. 1–131 to be read in Greek, ed. N. Wilson (Oxford Classical Texts, 2015)

The central part of Herodotus’ Histories studied in this paper analyses the causes and course of the Ionian Revolt and the first Persian invasion of Greece, which ended in defeat at the hands of the Athenians and Plataeans on the plain of Marathon in 490 BC. Included in Herodotus’ account of these events, however, is also his account of the circumstances in which Kleisthenes got the constitutional reforms which created democracy passed at Athens, a long speech on tyranny at Corinth, and much discussion of internal politics at Sparta and of Spartan foreign policy during the reign of King Kleomenes (c.520-c.490).

Herodotus’ text is our major source for all these events, and our understanding of them depends upon an understanding of Herodotus’ sources and his historical methods. By close study of the way in which Herodotus tells his story, making comparison where possible with evidence contemporary with the events described and with other later accounts, it is possible to understand both what Greeks of the middle of the fifth century had come to regard as the foundations of their current political arrangements, and also to assess the reliability of the traditions which Herodotus exploits. Problems concerning the nature of Athenian and Spartan politics in these years, as well as of the state of relations between Persia and Greece, for which there is also some Persian evidence, are the central historical concerns. But understanding Herodotus is important not only for our comprehension of the events of the period but for our understanding of the development of western historiography at whose head Herodotus stands.

Candidates are required to comment on gobbets set in Greek but are not required to translate Greek in the examination paper.

The text studied in Sallust’s Jugurtha is his account of Rome’s war against an African chieftain in the last decade of the second century BC. The war itself presented a serious threat to Rome’s interests in Africa which had been intense since the destruction of Carthage in 146 BC at the end of the Third Punic War. Sallust’s pamphlet gives a military and political history of the conflict in which the Roman army was at first commanded by the general Metellus; he was superseded by Gaius Marius, the first of the military dynasts of the late Republic, who defeated Jugurtha and brought the war to a successful conclusion.

Sallust’s account is of interest for more than the factual details of the war. It is one of the most important historiographical documents of the late Roman Republic, written as it was in the 40s BC, when its author had experienced personal success and failure in a political career conducted in the death-throes of the Republican system of government. Sallust comments both explicitly and implicitly on the corruption of the senatorial governing class and charts, in the rise of Gaius Marius, the growing personal power of a general and politician who was the first of the series of the leaders, which later included Pompey and Caesar, who were to bring the Republic to an end.

Candidates are required to comment on gobbets set in Latin but are not required to translate Latin in the examination paper.

(This subject is not normally available to candidates with a qualification in ancient Greek above GCSE-level or equivalent)

The course will allow takers to read simple, if probably adapted, prose texts. Candidates will be required to show knowledge of some of the main grammatical structures of ancient Greek and of a small basic vocabulary. The paper will consist of prepared and unprepared prose translations, with grammatical questions on the prepared texts.

Course book: (parts of) John Taylor: Greek to GCSE (Bristol Classical Press, 2003), in addition to extra material supplied in classes.

(This subject is not normally available to candidates with a qualification in Latin above GCSE- level or equivalent)

The course will allow takers to read simple, if probably adapted, prose texts. Candidates will be required to show knowledge of some of the main grammatical structures of Latin and of a small basic vocabulary. The paper will consist of prepared and unprepared prose translations, with grammatical questions on the prepared texts.

Course book: John Taylor, Essential GCSE Latin (Bristol Classical Press, 2006), in addition to extra material supplied in classes.

(This subject is not normally available to candidates with a qualification in ancient Greek above AS-level or equivalent)

Candidates will be required to show an intermediate level knowledge of Greek grammar and vocabulary (including all syntax and morphology, as laid out in Abbot and Mansfield, Primer of Greek Accidence).

The set texts for the course are: Xenophon, Hellenica I (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.

Useful editions with commentaries:

• Xenophon, Hellenika I.II.3.10, ed. P. Krentz (Warminster: Aris and Phillips, 1989);
• Lysias: Selected Speeches, ed. C. Carey (Cambridge: CUP, 1989).

(This subject is not available to candidates with a qualification in Latin above AS-level or equivalent.)

Candidates will be required to show an intermediate level knowledge of Latin grammar and vocabulary (including all syntax and morphology, as laid out in Kennedy’s Revised Latin Primer).

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; Tacitus, Agricola (Oxford Classical Text) 16-43; Pliny, letters in A. N. Sherwin-White, Fifty Letters of Pliny, 2nd edn (Oxford, 1969), nos 25, 29.

The paper will consist of a passage of unseen prose translation, three further passages for translation from the prescribed texts, and grammatical questions on the prescribed texts.

Useful editions with commentaries:

• Cicero: Select Letters, ed. D. R. Shackleton Bailey (Cambridge: CUP, 1980);
• Cornelii Taciti, De Vita Agricolae, eds R. M. Ogilvie and I. Richmond (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1967);
• Fifty Letters of Pliny, ed. A. N. Sherwin-White, 2nd edn (Oxford: OUP, 1969).

(This subject is available to candidates with a qualification in Latin above AS-level or equivalent).

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. N. Wilson, OCT, 2015];

(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).

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:

(i) Cicero, Pro Caelio [ed. OCT].

(ii) 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)

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