Faculty of Classics - University of Cambridge

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The Three-year Undergraduate Degree

If you have studied Latin at A-level or equivalent, then the exciting three-year course is for you. In the first year (Part 1A), you will develop your Latin and Greek reading skills through a selected schedule of ancient authors, and attend a wide range of lectures and supervisions on Greek and Roman literature, ancient history, art and archaeology, philosophy and linguistics. If you do not have A-level or equivalent Greek, you will do “Intensive Greek”, with its Faculty-run reading and grammar classes. We will ask you to learn some Greek over the summer (usually at a specific summer-school) but continue to teach you at different levels so as to cater for individual needs.

By the time you reach the second year (Part 1B), you will be reading a wider range of ancient authors and choosing from a greater number of more detailed options. The final year (Part II) is truly unique. Here you can select from a rich menu of topics, such as Apollo and Dionysus in Greek Literature, Aegean Prehistory, Pleasure, Elements of Comparative Linguistics, Greeks and the Supernatural, Sexual Ethics and Roman Britain, or indeed borrow a paper from another Faculty such as English or History. You may also be writing a thesis on a classical subject of your choice, be on an archaeological dig or on a study trip to Carthage, Athens or Rome, or acting in the triennial Cambridge Greek Play.

Illustration: Opening lines of Homer's Iliad, CCC MS 81 (15th century) p.1.  By kind permission of the Master and Fellows of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge.