Classics in the Classroom

We are incredibly excited to introduce our new project: “Classics in the Classroom”.

As part of the extensive outreach and public-engagement programme of the Department of Classics, Ancient History and Archaeology of the University of Birmingham, the project aims to provide teachers with educational materials which will be closely related to the content of the OCR Classics specifications and will be freely available online. The first pack of Hannah Cornwell and Ben Salisburymaterials presented here is dedicated to the Late Roman Republic, a subject covered in both the A-Level Classical Civilisation syllabus and the A-Level Ancient History syllabus, and has been prepared by Dr Hannah Cornwell and Ben Salisbury (PhD Candidate), both experts in the field. The pack contains a series of videos as well as notes to teachers, slides and workbooks for pupils, all of which are downloadable and ready to use in the classroom. 

What is unique with this initiative is that the content of the material was not only designed for teachers, but also decided by teachers. Talking into account a large number of answers given by Ancient History and Classical Civilisation teachers to an online questionnaire, Dr Cornwell and Mr Salisbury created educational materials suited specifically to the teachers’ needs and purposes. It is with great enthusiasm therefore that we now publicly share this material. We are hopeful that it will be of use to both teachers and pupils! 

Lesson packs


Timeline 2 - From Crisis to Crisis

Timeline 3 - The Big Three


Timeline 4 - Civil War, Dictatorships and More Civil War

Timeline 5 - Triumviral Period and the Making of Augustus


Bodies of the Constitution

Cursus Honorum



Coins 2: Caesar

Coins 3: Triumviral Period (Mark Antony and Octavian)

 Recommended further reading

  • Flower, H. 2010. Roman Republics.
  • Beard, M. and Crawford, M. 1985. Introduction to the Late Republic.
  • Wiseman, T. P. (ed.) 1985. Political Life 91 BC-AD 69.
  • Mouritsen, H. 2017. Politics of the Roman Republic. [more UG level]
  • Rowan, C. 2019. From Caesar to Augustus (c. 49 BC – AD 14): Using Coins as Sources.