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Ancient History

Ancient History is the discovery of worlds and people that existed nearly 2000 years ago. And that is where we begin – In Ancient Persia (Modern day Iran) with the study of the Achaemenid dynasty, founded by Cyrus the Great in 550 BC. The Persian unit looks at the first four kings – Cyrus, Cambyses, Darius and Xerxes, and includes Ancient History from across the middle east and Greece, we look at power struggles and battles, assassinations and plots, all through the eyes of our main sources, Herodotus, Plutarch and Ctesias.

We then move to study Alexander the Great. The man who defeats the Persian Empire in 331BC and goes on to found the greatest Empire at the time, stretching from Macedonia to India. We study the different myths and legends surrounding Alexander, including his birth. We look at his early life, which moulded him to become ‘The great’ as well as looking at his tactics in battle, and the battles that created the biggest empire the world had ever seen. Again, we look at this through the eyes of our Ancient source, which play a bigger part in this exam – Plutarch, Arrian and Diodorus Siculus.

Our third unit is the Foundations of Rome. We look at the very beginning of the creation of Rome, from the myths of Romulus and Remus, to the very first Roman Kings, and the influence they had on founding the famous Ancient City. As well as the development of the Republic of Rome. Again we study this through sources from the time, bringing in more archaeological sources for this unit.

Our final unit is the Fabulous Cleopatra – her rule of Egypt and her relationship with Ancient Rome. We will look at who she is, and how she has been shaped by her family History. We look at how she became Queen and the political and domestic problems that she faced as Queen – assassinations and plotting! We finish by looking at her famous relationship with Julius Caesar and Mark Antony, and the role that she played in the downfall of the rule of her family – the Ptolemy dynasty, and the rise of Roman rule in Egypt!

There are two, two-hour exams at the end of the course, comprising of four papers.

  • Ancient Persia – One hour
  • Alexander the Great – One hour
  • The Foundation of Rome – One hour
  • Cleopatra VII – One hour

The exams are a mixture of knowledge question and source based questions, drawing from the Ancient sources we study over the two-year course.

Home learning will vary from exam questions, further research, revision tasks, watching documentaries, or listening to podcasts.

L Hudson-Roberts – Director lhudson.trafalgar@salterns.org