National Year 13 Classical Civilisation

1. H408/11 The World of the Hero: Virgil

Virgil's Aeneid (in translation)

Coming soon

2. Beliefs and Ideas (one option)

H408/31 Greek Religion · H408/32 Love and Relationships · H408/33 Politics of the Late Republic · H408/34 Democracy and the Athenians

• Love and Relationships in Ancient Greek and Roman Thought – Greek and Roman thinkers asked what love is and how people should live together. In Plato's Symposium, Aristophanes says love is the search for our lost other half, and Diotima says love is desire for the good that can climb from one body to Beauty itself. Stoics such as Musonius Rufus and Seneca saw marriage as a partnership of mind and body, and warned against being ruled by passion. Poets show other sides: Sappho describes love as a sweet-bitter force felt in the body, while Ovid treats it as a game with rules. Behind all of this lie ancient ideas about men and women that were mostly unequal, with a few voices arguing for more equality.
• The Roman Republic: How Rome Ruled Itself Without a King – From 509 to 27 BCE Rome was a republic. Power was shared: two consuls elected for one year, a Senate of experienced former officials, and assemblies of citizens who voted on laws and elected officials. Tribunes protected ordinary people (plebeians). Politicians climbed a fixed ladder of offices. Wars brought wealth and huge armies, and powerful generals such as Sulla and Caesar broke the rules. After civil wars, Augustus became sole ruler in 27 BCE and the Republic ended.
• Athenian Democracy: Rule by the Citizens of Athens – Athens in the 5th and 4th centuries BCE was a direct democracy: adult male citizens met in the Assembly (ekklesia) and voted on laws, war and peace themselves. A Council of 500, chosen by lot, 50 from each of ten tribes, prepared the agenda. Large juries chosen by lot judged cases. Most officials were picked by lot for one year; only generals and a few experts were elected. Ostracism could send a too-powerful man away for ten years. Women, enslaved people and foreign residents had no vote. Thinkers such as Plato criticised it, yet its ideas (citizen vote, juries, accountability) shape democracy today.

3. Synoptic skills

Extended essays across sources

• Source Analysis: How Historians Judge Evidence – A source is any trace of the past that gives us evidence: a letter, a coin, a building, a song, a photo or a video. Primary sources come from the time being studied; secondary sources are later accounts, such as books by historians. To analyse a source, ask about its provenance (who made it, when, why and for whom), read its content against what you already know, look for bias, and decide how reliable and how useful it is for your question. Historians check sources against each other (corroboration) and read different scholars' interpretations before writing a reasoned commentary or essay.