Offer Holders

Congratulations on receiving an offer to study with us! We are looking forward to welcoming you into the Faculty. 

A-Level Support Series 

We are in the process of putting together a series of documents to support you with your a-level studies. We hope you find these useful- if you have any further ideas about what would help you please let us know by emailing access@classics.cam.ac.uk 

Four-year course

The set text for the first term (October-December) is Augustus, Res Gestae. It will be read in class in the original Latin.

Three-year course

The first year of the three-year course (Part IA) is organised around a series of ‘target texts’ most of which you will read in the original language.

The amount of text you will have to read and the extent to which you will need to read it on your own or in class will depend on your previous experience in each of the languages.

Before classes start, it is helpful to be familiar with the texts in English translation.

Both translations (sometimes a bit old-fashioned) and original texts can be freely accessed via the Perseus Collection. There is also a recent podcast with Mary Beard, discussing Lysias 1, which is one of the set texts.

After your arrival in Cambridge, you will have access to many more online resources as well as hard copies of the texts in the Faculty and College libraries.

If you have A-levels (or equivalent) in both Greek and Latin, in the first term (October-December) you will read in the original (mostly on your own) the following texts:

Greek: Lysias 1 (On the murder of Eratosthenes); Plato Ion.

Latin: Virgil, Aeneid 8; Sallust, Bellum Catilinae; Augustus, Res Gestae.

‘Intensive Greek’

If you have an A-level (or equivalent) in Latin but not in Greek, you will cover the above Latin texts mostly on your own in the first term, but for Greek you will have intensive classes focused on reading through the following:

Lysias 1 (On the Murder of Eratosthenes): 6–28, 37–40 and Plato, Ion: 531c–532a2, 533c9–535a5, 540d1–542b4 (the rest of these texts to be read in English translation).

Those who have GCSE (or equivalent) in Greek have a slightly different prescription, still to be read in class: Lysias 1 (On the Murder of Eratosthenes); Plato, Ion 535e–542b (rest of the text to be read in English translation).

‘Intensive Latin’

If you have A-level (or equivalent) in Greek but not in Latin, you will follow the ‘intensive Latin’ pathway, where in the first term you will read (mostly on your own) Lysias 1 (On the murder of Eratosthenes) and Plato Ion, and you will have reading classes focusing on the following Latin texts: Virgil Aeneid 8; Sallust Bellum Catilinae 1-25 and 55-61 (the remainder to be read in English translation); Augustus, Res Gestae.