Ancient HistoryQ&A by dot point

AO4 interpretation skills: analysing and evaluating the differing interpretations of modern scholars, understanding why historians disagree (evidence, method, emphasis), and weighing interpretations to reach a reasoned position.

AO3 source skills: evaluating ancient sources for their utility to a stated enquiry, using content, provenance (nature, origin and purpose) and contextual knowledge, and reaching a judgement on usefulness rather than labelling a source reliable or biased.

The four assessment objectives: AO1 knowledge, AO2 analysis using second-order concepts, AO3 the use and evaluation of ancient sources, and AO4 the evaluation of modern interpretations, and how each question type in H407 targets them.

The Greek historians: the methods, strengths and limitations of Herodotus, Thucydides and Xenophon as the prescribed sources for the Persia and Greece period study and the Sparta depth study, and how to evaluate them.

The Roman historians and sources: the methods, strengths and limitations of Tacitus, Suetonius, Cassius Dio, Cicero and the documentary sources (the Res Gestae, coins and inscriptions) for the Julio-Claudian period and the Late Republic, and how to evaluate them.

Exam timing and revision: how to divide the 2 hour 30 minute paper across the short answers, the 20-mark essay, the 12-mark source question and the 36-mark depth essay, and how to revise the content, the prescribed sources and the exam skills.

The 12-mark source-utility question: reading the sources against the enquiry, weighing each source's provenance, grouping and comparing where there are several, testing against context, and reaching a judgement on usefulness for AO3.

The 20-mark period-study essay: decoding the command, selecting and ranking the relevant factors, organising thematically, supporting with precise ancient detail, and structuring towards a substantiated judgement for AO1 and AO2.

The 36-mark depth-study essay: building a sustained argument on and from the prescribed ancient sources, integrating source evaluation with analysis, ranking factors, and reaching a substantiated judgement that weighs the evidence.

Sparta in the Peloponnesian War 431 to 404 BC: Spartan strategy and aims against Athens, the role of Brasidas in the Archidamian War, the decisive part of Lysander and the Persian alliance, and the final defeat of Athens in 404 BC.

The Spartan way of life: the agoge (the state upbringing and military education), the syssitia (common messes) and their role in citizenship, the ideals of obedience, endurance and equality among the homoioi, and how the sources present the Spartan system.

The helots and Spartan control: the status and role of the helots, the perioikoi, the krypteia and the methods of repression, the great revolt after the earthquake of 464 BC, and how dependence on and fear of the helots shaped Spartan society and foreign policy.

The position of Spartan women: their upbringing and physical training, their roles in marriage and the household, their control of property, their public freedom compared with other Greek poleis, and the differing and often hostile or admiring source traditions.

The Spartan constitution: the dual kingship, the gerousia, the ephors and the apella (assembly), the Great Rhetra, and how the prescribed sources (Xenophon, Aristotle, Plutarch, Thucydides) present and judge the system.

The first Persian invasion and the Battle of Marathon 490 BC: Darius's punitive expedition, the fall of Eretria, the Athenian decision to fight, the role of Miltiades, the tactics and outcome of the battle, and its significance for Athenian self-image.

The decisive Greek victories of 480 to 479 BC: the naval battle of Salamis and the strategy of Themistocles, the land battle of Plataea under Pausanias, the battle of Mycale, and the reasons for the failure of the Persian invasion.

The Ionian Revolt 499 to 494 BC: its causes, the roles of Aristagoras and Histiaeus, Athenian and Eretrian involvement, the burning of Sardis, the Persian suppression and the sack of Miletus, and its significance for the outbreak of the Persian Wars.

The organisation of the Persian empire under Darius I: the satrapy system, tribute, the royal road and communications, royal ideology, and the value of Persian evidence such as the Behistun inscription and Persepolis alongside Herodotus.

The rise and expansion of the Persian empire under Cyrus the Great (the conquest of Media, Lydia and Babylon), Cambyses (the conquest of Egypt) and the accession of Darius I, studied chiefly through Herodotus.

Xerxes's invasion of 480 BC: the scale of the preparations, the Hellespont bridges and Athos canal, the Greek alliance and strategy, the battle of Thermopylae and the death of Leonidas, and the simultaneous naval action at Artemisium.

Caesar's dictatorship and assassination: his victory in the civil war, his accumulation of powers and honours, his reforms, the motives of the conspirators, and the assassination on the Ides of March 44 BC, with evaluation of the prescribed sources.

Pompey, Crassus and the politics of the 70s and 60s BC: Pompey's irregular early career and extraordinary commands against the pirates and Mithridates, the wealth and ambition of Crassus, and how their power strained the Republic before the First Triumvirate.

Sulla and the breakdown of Republican norms: the first march on Rome in 88 BC, the civil war with the Marians, the proscriptions, the dictatorship and the Sullan constitution, and the precedents Sulla set for the use of armies in politics.

The First Triumvirate and the rise of Caesar: the alliance of Pompey, Crassus and Caesar in 60 BC, Caesar's consulship and Gallic command, the breakdown of the alliance after Crassus's death, and the crossing of the Rubicon in 49 BC that began the civil war.

The Second Triumvirate and the end of the Republic: the alliance of Antony, Octavian and Lepidus in 43 BC, the proscriptions and the death of Cicero, the defeat of the Liberators at Philippi, the breakdown between Antony and Octavian, the propaganda war, and the battle of Actium in 31 BC.

Augustus and the creation of the principate: the settlements of 27 BC and 23 BC, proconsular imperium and tribunician power, the language of the restored Republic, the Res Gestae, and the foundations of one-man rule.

Claudius as emperor: his accession through the Praetorian Guard, the administrative role of his powerful freedmen, the conquest of Britain in AD 43 and its propaganda value, his relations with the Senate, and the difficulty of judging him from divided sources.

Gaius (Caligula) as emperor: his popular accession, the change in his behaviour and relations with the Senate, the financial and political crises, the tradition of his madness, his assassination in AD 41, and the difficulty of judging him from hostile sources.

Nero as emperor: the guided early reign under Seneca and Burrus, the murder of his mother Agrippina, his artistic and Greek interests, the fire of Rome in AD 64 and the persecution of Christians, the conspiracies, and the revolt that ended the Julio-Claudian dynasty in AD 68.

The army, the Praetorian Guard and imperial succession: the role of the legions and the Praetorians in making and unmaking emperors, the lack of a fixed succession rule, the use of adoption and marriage, and how these structural problems shaped the whole Julio-Claudian period.

Tiberius as emperor: his accession and relations with the Senate, the use of treason (maiestas) trials, the rise and fall of Sejanus and the retreat to Capri, and the problems of judging Tiberius given the hostility of Tacitus and Suetonius.