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OCR (9–1) J198 · eight modules · taught by the ancient historians who are themselves the sources
The complete OCR GCSE (9–1) Ancient History (J198), built so that each part of the specification is taught by the ancient writer who is its principal source. Where a school chooses one Greek depth study and one Roman depth study, the Universitas has built every option — so the self-paced student may study them all. Eight modules, across the two examined components.
The casting is the method at its purest: the source teaches the topic. Herodotus — who wrote the only surviving narrative of the Persian Wars — teaches the rise of Persia and the birth of Athenian democracy. Thucydides, who lived through Periclean Athens and recorded the Funeral Oration, teaches it. Plutarch, biographer of Alexander and of Antony, teaches Alexander and Cleopatra. Livy teaches the foundations of Rome he chronicled; Polybius, who walked Hannibal’s route across the Alps, teaches the Second Punic War; and Tacitus, son-in-law of the general who conquered northern Britain, teaches Roman Britannia.
Throughout, the examination’s core skill — the critical use of ancient source material — is woven into every module, because each host is not only the narrator of the events but a teacher of how to weigh the evidence they left.
An independent educational project. Universitas Scholarium is not affiliated with or endorsed by OCR or Cambridge. The J198 specification is the externally authored curriculum; what the Universitas provides is who teaches it.
Herodotus Simulacrum
The compulsory period study, taught by the source for almost everything we know of it. Four reigns across ninety-four years — Cyrus the founder, Cambyses and the disputed accession of Darius, Darius the organiser, and Xerxes against the Greeks — with the historian’s first habit, asking where a story comes from, built in from the start.
Open module →Herodotus Simulacrum
The first Greek depth study: a source-led investigation of how the city-states moved from tyranny to democracy, turning on the comparison the specification builds in — why democracy took root at Athens but not at Samos. Peisistratids, Polycrates, the reforms of Cleisthenes, and democracy in action to the eve of Xerxes’ invasion.
Open module →Thucydides Simulacrum
The second Greek depth study, taught by the historian who lived it and recorded the Funeral Oration. How the democracy worked, the Delian League’s hardening into empire and the road to war, the building of the Acropolis, and the position of women — with the source himself a participant whose own judgement must be weighed.
Open module →Plutarch of Chaeronea Simulacrum
The third Greek depth study, taught by the author of the most influential Life of Alexander — honest that he writes lives, not histories. The inheritance from Philip, the destruction of Persia, the march to the edge of the world and the army’s refusal, and the unsettled verdict: civilising visionary or drunken conqueror?
Open module →Livy Simulacrum
The compulsory longer period study, taught by Rome’s greatest narrator and its first honest sceptic about its own legends. Three centuries from Romulus to the early Republic across four themes — political, religious and social, military change, and separating myth from reality — the whole study turning on weighing legend against evidence.
Open module →Polybius Simulacrum
The first Roman depth study, taught by the principal source — the historian who walked Hannibal’s Alpine route to test the story. From the causes of the war and the crossing of the Alps, through the victories at Trebia, Trasimene and Cannae, to Rome’s recovery under Fabius and Scipio and the reversal at Zama.
Open module →Plutarch of Chaeronea Simulacrum
The second Roman depth study, taught by the biographer whose Life of Antony is the source for almost every famous scene. The interaction of Rome and Egypt as the Republic dies — Cleopatra with Caesar and then Antony, Octavian’s propaganda war, and the end at Actium — and the task of recovering a real queen from a record her enemies wrote.
Open module →Tacitus Simulacrum
The third Roman depth study, taught by the principal source and son-in-law of the general who conquered the north. The Claudian invasion, the revolt of Boudica, the campaigns of Agricola to Mons Graupius, and the Romanisation of Britain — using a source that is brilliant, eyewitness-adjacent, and far from disinterested.
Open module →