Classics and the Ancient World

This BA in Classics and the Ancient World will empower you to take the burning questions of today and apply them to some of the most celebrated and debated cultures of ancient Europe, Asia, and North Africa.

You’ll get to explore themes such as people versus elites, minority rights, sexual diversity and gender politics, empire and multiculturalism, ethnicity and race, religious identity and experience, consensus and conflict, art, philosophy, the meaning of justice, and much more.

Thanks to a curriculum built entirely with multidisciplinary optional modules, you’ll be free to follow your own interests as you study Classics within the broader context of the ancient world, whether that’s through literature, philosophy, history, archaeology, global and social issues, politics, art, culture, and beyond.

You don’t have to learn Ancient Greek and Latin during this Classics degree, but an optional accelerated language route is available. If you have previous Ancient Greek and Latin experience, you can also continue to develop this during your studies.

Key benefits

• Classics at King’s ranked first in the UK for research excellence (REF 2021) and in the top five UK Classics Departments in the QS World Rankings 2025. This research excellence feeds into our teaching on the course.

• You will be part of one of the largest Classics departments in the UK, with unique coverage from the Bronze Age to Modern Greece.

• Our course combines focus and flexibility, allowing students to pursue their interests in a department renowned for the quality of its teaching and the student experience. You can build transferable analytical and communication skills that employers from a range of sectors find highly desirable.

• You can either study ancient sources in translation or learn Ancient Greek, and Latin or Hittite,with an accelerated three-year language route as an option for those without previous experience. If you already have some knowledge of Ancient Greek or Latin, you can continue your language learning at intermediate or advanced level

• Our central London location enables collaboration with the British Museum and other cultural institutions, which are incorporated into our teaching.

• You will have the opportunity to travel on an expenses-paid field trip to ancient sites in the Mediterranean during your second or third year.

• You can enjoy extracurricular activities like joining the famous Greek Play, performed live every year since 1953, or experiencing how classical topics are taught in local primary schools.