Learning Outcomes:
Module Specific Skills and Knowledge
• Students will gain an understanding of the development of ancient political thinking, its systemisation and theorisation.
• Students will gain an understanding of, and an ability to analyse the main ‘political’ themes that concerned ancient authors.
• Students will gain an understanding of the political nature of ancient writing and how these ideas, sometimes unknowingly, continue to shape the language of modern political rhetoric and discourse.
Discipline-specific skills
• Students will be able to analyse political ideas expressed through a variety of texts.
• Students will gain an understanding of key political concerns in the ancient world and how these differ from modern debates.
• Students will gain a critical understanding of how the past is used, and sometimes abused, in order to legitimise modern decisions.
Indicative Module Content:
Authors studied may vary from year to year. They may include, but are not limited to:
• Herodotus, Thucydides, Xenophon, Polybius, and Plutarch
• Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, and Aristophanes
• Plato, Aristotle, and ps. Xenophon 'The Old Oligarch'
• Select Lyric poets