Ancient History with a Foundation Year

Ancient history is the study of the Greek and Roman worlds, the civilisations that laid the cultural, political, philosophical, and legal foundations of Western tradition and that continue to shape how we understand governance, art, religion, and human nature. The Greeks and Romans built empires, debated democracy, produced philosophy and drama that still speaks to us, and created legal and administrative systems whose influence persists. Studying them across the more than one thousand years of their development means engaging with a remarkable sweep of human achievement and with the enduring questions it raises.

At Swansea University, this four-year full-time programme with a foundation year provides a supported entry point before the main degree, making ancient history accessible to students who want to build their academic foundation before engaging with the full curriculum. You will explore the societies and cultures of the Greeks and Romans, tracing how they developed, how they interacted, and how events from the Persian Wars through the Roman Republic and Empire to late antiquity shaped the world that followed. The programme develops your skills in working with primary sources in translation, evaluating competing interpretations, and constructing well-evidenced arguments about the ancient world.

Swansea's research strengths in classics and ancient history provide an intellectually stimulating context.

Graduates from ancient history programmes go on to careers in education, heritage, museums, archiving, journalism, publishing, the civil service, and the law, as well as a wide range of other fields that value the analytical and communication skills the discipline develops. The ability to work carefully with complex sources and to construct persuasive arguments about contested questions is highly transferable, and many graduates find their ancient history training serves them across a wide range of professional contexts. Many go on to postgraduate study in ancient history, classics, or archaeology, and some pursue academic careers.