Incredible subject. Frederik is very engaging and these tutorials were always something to look forward to. I disagree with one of the other reviews who says that Frederik isn't "PC/woke" -> in my experience, Frederik was able to engage critically with the social inequalities of the ancient world and discuss modern perceptions and values and how they differ. I think it is a massive positive of the Unimelb history department that they encourage this level of critical thinking, despite some who will always criticise "woke" content. Lots of freedom for the research essay, which was amazing. I liked that there were opportunities to boost your grade, like the map quiz and the weekly tutorial discussion. Highly recommend the subject.

Some of the best parts of this subject include the quality of the source text, the weeky CANVAS resources (YouTube videos etc.) as a compliment to the source text and Seminars, and Frederik the subject coordinator! What a legend. His teaching method is so impressive. He is very engaging, humorous, informative, knowledgable (an expert I must add), and theatrical in the lecturing he does in class. He says it how it is, brings up provocatice conversations, and isn't ruining the study of Ancient History by being PC/Woke (like I know some modern scholars do). Oh...and the weekly quizzes! Absolute highlight. There is not much I can reccomend to improve the subject. Perhaps rank-ordering the weekly discussion questions by difficulty so the less-compenent students (such as myself being a breadth student), can group together and actually tackle a question confidently that is within their league. Some of the weekly questions were quite above me and probably better suited to History-Major students. If you take this subject, make sure you read the source text thoroughly.

Such a great subject! Every week we had one two hour seminar divided into roughly a one hour lecture and then one hour of group discussion and a quiz. The lectures were fascinating and Frederik (the lecturer) was super engaging, the time went by so quickly. Since the lectures were done with a tutorial size group anyone could ask questions as well and Frederik is really knowledgable. The group discussion was really interesting, everyone in the class seemed super friendly and engaged. The quizzes each week were also actually quite fun as they didn't really count for anything, we competed in groups and the winning group won chocolate, so not too serious at all. One thing I will say is that the readings can be a little dense and do take several hours, and you do have to read them fairly thoroughly to participate in group discussion and the quiz, but the classes every week more than make up for that.

This subject is very well-taught, the lecturer Frederik teaches various topics about the Roman Republic with a nice mix of humour and relations to modern day examples that makes the subject more relatable and enjoyable. Frederik is also quite flexible as he was not fussy about citation styles and was willing to negotiate with us about the major essay due date. The prescribed textbook is quite thick and every weekly chapter can be pretty long because they place portions of primary sources in relation to themes, but despite this I would say the textbooks' materials are worthwhile to read and not dry like some academic journals. The assessment percentage is fairly spread out as well with different assignments spread out throughout the semester.