GCSE Ancient History.DOC

Textbook GCSE Ancient History OCR GCSE in Ancient History: J151/J051 This handbook is designed to accompany the OCR GCSE Ancient History specification for teaching from September 2009. Contents 2 Introduction 3 Unit A031: The Greeks at war 4 Option 1: The Greeks defend themselves, 479 -449 BC 4 Option 2: Alexander the Great, 356–323 BC 38 Unit A032: The Rise of Rome 76 Option 1: The origins of Rome: The kings, 753 - 508 BC 76 Option 2: Hannibals invasion and defeat, 218 -146 BC 102 Unit A033: Women in ancient politics 134 Option 1: Cleopatra and her impact on Roman politics, 69-30 BC 134 Option 2: Agrippina the Younger and her influence on Roman politics, AD 41-59 165 Introduction Ancient History GCSE provides an introduction to the ancient world. It gives you the opportunity to study some of the most fascinating characters in western history. These are the men and women who have helped to shape the way we see the world, and whose lives have a strong relevance to the modern world. The sources for these characters contain many interesting stories, but the task of the ancient historian is to study these stories and try to separate fact from fiction. The fact that there are limited sources requires you to think carefully about the meaning of each source, and work to a logical conclusion. This course encourages the discipline of creativity which is so essential for a historian, and which can be applied in all areas of later life. In each unit there is a choice of options. You study one option from each unit. This book follows the way content is outlined in the specification. Each option has a section on context which explains the background understanding you will need to study the option. The option content is then split into themes, which are explained in detail. Then there is a section at the end of each option that looks at the sources that we have and considers what their aims may have been, how they r