This unit covers the ancient civilizations that arose first in Greece then in Rome. It starts just over 4 000 years ago on the island of Crete, which you will notice is in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea just north of Egypt, which you studied in Unit 2.

The unit is called "Greco-Roman" as this is the term historians use to refer to this period of time. You will learn how tightly connected these two civilizations were. You might notice that not only did these civilizations overlap in time with the Egyptian world, but that the Romans included the Nile River Valley in its empire.

Here you will again be learning about city-states. You will see how they operated in Greece, then in Rome, before Rome went on to become an empire.

You will be learning about the Greek origins of the Olympic games, and about the beginnings of democratic governments. You will learn about how the Greeks built majestic temples that still stand today and how the Romans first copied them then improved upon them.

A large focus in this unit is the development of artistic traditions. What you should expect to see is how artists developed their skills so that they could produce more realistic representations of their world whether in marble, precious metals or on two dimensional surfaces such as walls.

At the end of this unit, you will be taking part in a research project that will have you looking at literary traditions from the age of antiquity such as theatre and epic poetry. You will also learn about words and phrases uttered by people then that are still in use today.