Ancient History MA

Our Ancient History MA offers you the opportunity to study Greek, Roman and near-Eastern history at an advanced level.

Your Master’s in Ancient History has just one required taught module, which will teach you how to use and refine numerous techniques and skills to analyse and interpret a range of historical sources. For the rest of the MA, you’ll be free to choose your own taught programme from a broad list of optional modules and then finish it with a dissertation on a topic that you choose.

This is a University of London intercollegiate course which pulls in the very best ancient history expertise from King’s alongside UCL, Royal Holloway and the Institute of Classical Studies. You’ll meet academics and colleagues from across London and get to choose modules that are taught by each institution.

Key benefits

• Study in one of the UK's largest and oldest departments of Classics. Classics has been taught on the Strand for over 200 years.
• Join a Classics department that’s ranked first in the UK for research excellence (REF 2021) and 4th in the UK for Classics Departments in the QS World Rankings 2024.
• Enjoy an unrivalled location for the study of the ancient world, thanks to London's unique range of specialist libraries, museums and galleries.
• Choose from an extraordinarily wide list of modules, drawing on the resources of the whole of the University of London.
• Complete a master’s that leads to further research or careers in education, journalism, finance, politics and the cultural sector.

Course essentials

This Master’s in Ancient History is an intercollegiate course from the University of London. This means you’ll get access to ancient history experts from not just King’s but also UCL, Royal Holloway and the Institute of Classical Studies. This also gives you an extraordinarily wide list of optional modules to choose from, with teaching offered across institutions.

By taking the Ancient History MA at King’s, you’ll become part of the best Classics department in the country for research excellence—and one of the largest and oldest in the UK. You’ll get to tap into our extensive expertise not only in history but also in archaeology, literature, and thought, with specialisms right across the ancient world.

This is particularly beneficial when it comes to your dissertation. You’ll be empowered to tackle a research question that most interests you, and you’ll be supported to do so by a Classics department with proficiency in most aspects of ancient history.

During your Ancient History Master’s, you’ll only study one required taught module, which will introduce you to ancient history sources and methods. You’ll learn how to work with sources such as ancient historical writers, fragments of Greek texts from ancient Egypt, and inscriptions in the British Museum while you develop your critical approaches to evidence and learn how to conduct your own research.

The rest of your Ancient History MA is comprised of optional modules and a dissertation at the end of the year. You’ll have to pick one or two Ancient History modules from a curated list that covers a range of topics. At King’s, for example, topics range from Greek religion to ancient Persepolis to Christian persecution in Rome to the frontiers of the ancient world on the Black Sea and Britain. You’ll also be able to select optional modules from related MAs at UCL, Royal Holloway and the Institute of Classical Studies.

You will then select more optional modules either in ancient history or from a wider list including archaeology, literature and reception options that typically explore topics such as exhibiting classical antiquities, Greek sculpture and its legacy, Hellenistic poetry, Roman comedy, Pompeii, and Herculaneum or Black Classicisms.

If you have ambitions to take your study of ancient history further, there are modules that will advance your technical skills in the handling of documentary evidence, for example, in epigraphy or papyrology.

It’s also possible to learn Ancient Greek and Latin for research at a beginner or intermediate level and to pick one module from the King's Language Centre.

Alongside your Ancient History Master’s study, you’ll also get access to the world-class research library at the Institute of Classical Studies and be invited to the rich programme of seminars, conferences and lectures which it hosts, as well as events at King’s.

You can also get involved with the Greek Play. Performed every year since 1953, it’s a fun way to get experience in production and performance. There are other exciting extracurricular opportunities available, such as those offered by the Classics Society.