Classics

Classics is one of the oldest and most demanding intellectual traditions in European education, concerned with the civilisations of ancient Greece and Rome in all their complexity and richness. To study Classics is to engage directly with the Greek and Latin languages, to read the texts that shaped Western literature, philosophy, law, and political thought in the original, and to bring to bear the full range of historical, archaeological, and literary methods on civilisations that remain foundational to how the modern world understands itself. It is a discipline that demands rigour, creativity, and an unusual breadth of intellectual engagement.

At the University of Oxford, this four-year full-time programme is among the most prestigious versions of the subject in the world. You will develop proficiency in both ancient Greek and Latin, reading authors across a wide range of genres from epic poetry and Attic tragedy to Platonic philosophy, historical writing, and Roman rhetoric. Alongside language and literature, you will study ancient history, philosophy, archaeology, and art, constructing a comprehensive understanding of the ancient world and the methods used to investigate it.

The Oxford tutorial system, which is central to how this degree is taught, gives you sustained one-to-one or small-group intellectual engagement with your tutors, developing your capacity to formulate arguments, challenge assumptions, and think independently at a high level.

Classics graduates go on to exceptionally diverse careers, including law, the civil service, politics, journalism, academia, publishing, finance, and the arts. The intellectual skills the degree develops, close reading, rigorous argumentation, comfort with complex evidence, and the ability to think across disciplines, are valued wherever analytical precision and cultural breadth are needed. Many Oxford Classics graduates proceed to postgraduate study in the subject or in related fields including ancient history, philosophy, or archaeology.