Classics

Classics is the study of the ancient Greek and Roman world in all its dimensions, encompassing the languages, literature, history, philosophy, religion, art and material culture of the civilisations that have shaped the Western intellectual tradition more profoundly than any other. To study classics is to engage with some of the most challenging and rewarding texts ever written, in the original Greek and Latin, and to develop skills of critical analysis, precise argument and creative thinking that transfer across an enormously wide range of professional and intellectual contexts.

At the University of Warwick you will study for three years full-time, including a year abroad, engaging with the languages, literature and thought of ancient Greece and Rome while also exploring the broader cultural, social and political contexts of the classical world. You will develop advanced skills in close reading, linguistic analysis, historical reconstruction and philosophical argument, engaging with texts that range from Homer and Thucydides to Virgil and Tacitus. The combination of linguistic rigour and cultural breadth produces graduates with a distinctive intellectual training that employers across many fields recognise and value.

Classics graduates pursue careers across an extraordinarily wide range of fields, including law, the civil service, finance, journalism, publishing, education, academia, heritage, museum and gallery work, and the creative industries. The combination of linguistic precision, critical analysis, cultural breadth and the ability to engage with complex arguments from first principles is valued by employers who need people who can think clearly and write well. Many graduates also go on to postgraduate study in classical studies, ancient history, archaeology, philosophy, law or related fields, building on the rigorous analytical foundation the degree provides.