CL3TW: Travel Writing in Antiquity

Module code: CL3TW

Module provider: Classics; School of Humanities

Credits: 20

ECTS credits: 10

Level: 6

When you’ll be taught: Semester 1

Module convenor: Dr Dylan James, email: d.s.james@reading.ac.uk

Pre-requisite module(s):

Co-requisite module(s):

Pre-requisite or Co-requisite module(s):

Module(s) excluded:

Placement information: NA

Academic year: 2026/7

Available to visiting students: Yes

Talis reading list: Yes

Last updated: 25 March 2026

Overview

Module aims and purpose

What was it like to travel through the ancient world? This module will explore travel narratives from a selection of ancient Greek and Roman historians, geographers, novelists, and poets to determine the ways in which ancient people conceived of journeys across land and sea. Students will be exposed to a vast cross-section of ancient writing, and will confront key debates concerning literary, cultural, historical, economic, and material questions. In the process, travel will become a lens for students to engage with a range of cultures and different ways of looking at the world in antiquity and beyond.

Module learning outcomes

By the end of the module, it is expected that students will be able to:

1. Understand a range of genres and approaches to travel writing across antiquity
2. Identify and analyse the broader literary, cultural, historical and other questions that emerge from travel narratives with the help of relevant scholarship
3. Draw connections between the ancient sources and key scholarly arguments presented in the lectures, seminars, and additional information encountered during their own research
4. Articulate understanding of ancient travel writing through creative production and scholarly writing, effectively employing relevant evidence

Module content

Greek literature starts with the Greeks travelling to Troy, and back home again (with varying degrees of success). This legacy informed much of ancient literature about moving through space: the fascinating topography, the interesting peoples, the marvellous wonders. The lectures and seminars on this module will explore what travel meant to the Greeks and Romans through a cross-section of writing across genres: epic, historiography, drama, lyric, geography, epistolography. Consideration will be given to who travelled (elites and non-elites, men/women/children); why they travelled (vacation, exploration, conquest, migration, slave trade, exile); how they travelled (vehicles, maps, guides, interpreters, navigation); where they travelled; and what they found when they got there. Comparison with non-Greek and non-Roman travel narratives—both contemporary and more modern—will help contextualise and critically analyse the Greco-Roman tradition and its scholarly legacies.

Structure

Teaching and learning methods

In every week we have two-hour sessions: the first hour is a lecture, the second a seminar consisting of small group discussions of individual primary sources, scholarly articles, or modern comparative texts.

Study hours

At least 20 hours of scheduled teaching and learning activities will be delivered in person, with the remaining hours for scheduled and self-scheduled teaching and learning activities delivered either in person or online. You will receive further details about how these hours will be delivered before the start of the module.

Please note the independent study hours above are notional numbers of hours; each student will approach studying in different ways. We would advise you to reflect on your learning and the number of hours you are allocating to these tasks.

Semester 1 The hours in this column may include hours during the Christmas holiday period.

Semester 2 The hours in this column may include hours during the Easter holiday period.

Summer The hours in this column will take place during the summer holidays and may be at the start and/or end of the module.

Assessment

Requirements for a pass

Students need to achieve an overall module mark of 40% to pass this module.

Summative assessment

Penalties for late submission of summative assessment

The Support Centres will apply the following penalties for work submitted late:

Assessments with numerical marks

• where the piece of work is submitted after the original deadline (or a DAS-agreed extension as a reasonable adjustment indicated in your Individual Learning Plan): 10% of the total marks available for that piece of work will be deducted from the mark for each calendar day (or part thereof) following the deadline up to a total of three calendar days;
• where the piece of work is submitted up to three calendar days after the original deadline (or a DAS-agreed extension as a reasonable adjustment indicated in you Individual Learning Plan), the mark awarded due to the imposition of the penalty shall not fall below the threshold pass mark, namely 40% in the case of modules at Levels 4-6 (i.e. undergraduate modules for Parts 1-3) and 50% in the case of Level 7 modules offered as part of an Integrated Masters or taught postgraduate degree programme;
• where the piece of work is awarded a mark below the threshold pass mark prior to any penalty being imposed, and is submitted up to three calendar days after the original deadline (or a DAS-agreed extension as a reasonable adjustment indicated in your Individual Learning Plan), no penalty shall be imposed;
• where the piece of work is submitted more than three calendar days after the original deadline (or a DAS-agreed extension as a reasonable adjustment indicated in your Individual Learning Plan): a mark of zero will be recorded.

Assessments marked Pass/Fail

• where the piece of work is submitted within three calendar days of the deadline (or a DAS-agreed extension as a reasonable adjustment indicated in your Individual Learning Plan): no penalty will be applied;
• where the piece of work is submitted more than three calendar days after the original deadline (or a DAS-agreed extension as a reasonable adjustment indicated in your Individual Learning Plan): a grade of Fail will be awarded.

Where a piece of work is submitted late after a deadline which has been revised owing to an extension granted through the Assessment Adjustments policy and process (self-certified or otherwise), it will be subject to the maximum penalty (i.e., considered to be more than three calendar days late). This will also apply when such an extension is used in conjunction with a DAS-agreed extension as a reasonable adjustment.

The University policy statement on penalties for late submission can be found at: https://www.reading.ac.uk/cqsd/-/media/project/functions/cqsd/documents/qap/penaltiesforlatesubmission.pdf

You are strongly advised to ensure that coursework is submitted by the relevant deadline. You should note that it is advisable to submit work in an unfinished state rather than to fail to submit any work.

Formative assessment

Formative assessment is any task or activity which creates feedback (or feedforward) for you about your learning, but which does not contribute towards your overall module mark.

Reassessment

Additional costs