Classical Civilisation

Course summary

The world of the Greeks and Romans was in many ways very different from our own, in other ways very similar indeed. In A-Level Classical Civilisation students will study a range of historical and cultural texts drawn from the canon of Greek and Roman literature, and in so doing analyse how the Greeks and Romans thought and felt about their world. Topics covered include the great poetic epics of Homer and Virgil that form the wellspring of the Western literary canon, Athenian theatre, both tragic and comic, where drama as we know it was born, and the attitudes of Greek and Roman writers towards love, sex, marriage and relationships, both poetic (Sappho, Ovid) and philosophical (Plato, Seneca).