The Roman History Page

Here are some documents, resources and ideas to help you in your study of A340, with a particular focus on preparing for the exam. Take a look around, let me know if there’s anything else you’d like to see – and keep checking back, because I’ll be adding material throughout the year.

Resources for studying A340

Art Appreciation Download

Evaluating sculpture Download

Critical Appreciations Download

Reinventing the Wheel: how to approach a critical analysis of a primary source.

Joining an academic library, in five easy steps: straightforward instructions for following the SCONUL process.

Suggestions from Steve: some unorthodox thoughts on approaching the course if you’re short on time.

Comfort Classics

If you visit the Comfort Classics page, you’ll see lots of interviews with academics, teachers, students and others about ancient sources. You might find them interesting: particularly the ones by OU Classics lecturers Joanna Paul, Christine Plastow, Naoko Yamagata, Valerie Hope, Jan Haywood, James Robson, Phil Perkins, Jessica Hughes and E-J Graham. There are also interviews with documentary-makers Mary Beard, Michael Scott and Michael Wood, and with Greg Woolf who wrote the set text for A340.

Tutorial materials

Faces of Rome: a lesson on the importance of considering context when analysing a primary source (in the form of a downloadable pdf).

Never trust a historian: a lesson on the lengths Roman historians would go to in order to compose a good story (in the form of a downloadable pdf).

Structures of Empire- Insulae: a lesson on what “tower block living” can tell us about the Roman world (in the form of a downloadable pdf).

Nineteenth Century Reception: a case study of Victorian reception of Rome in St. Nicholas’ Cathedral, Newcastle (in the form of a downloadable pdf).

Roman Religion, by David Coplowe: with thanks to David, our 2018 guest speaker.

Videos

Was Hadrian’s Wall an expensive folly? – Current Archaeology