Murderous pharaohs, bloody battles, flings with kings and an emperor who inducted his horse into the senate - it is no wonder HSC students are flocking to ancient history.

In 2001 it attracted 7382 HSC students; this year there were 10,336, more than modern history for the second year in a row.

Syl Bosworth, an ancient history teacher at Karabar High School, Queanbeyan, said blockbuster films such as Gladiator and Alexander the Great had probably helped lift the subject's profile.

"More than that, it deals with a whole range within a society: the people, the society itself, the changes that happen over a period; and the kids really do seem to love it," she said.

Students at Saint Ignatius' College, Riverview, who sat the HSC exam yesterday, said ancient history had an element of mystery.

"Modern history is very straightforward," Darius Navidzadeh said. "It's very well-documented. Ancient history is more open to interpretation. There's always different opinions. The things that happen are more spectacular."
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When asked their favourite stories, the students listed the crazed antics of Rome's Emperor Caligula, the disappearance of Egypt's Queen Hatshepsut's mummy, the bloody conquests of Alexander the Great and a Persian commander called Boges.

"There's lots of blood and stuff," said one.

The course also offers a taste of early feminism with questions about the role of Roman matrons or women in Minoan religion. "More so than modern history, women are prominent," said another St Ignatius boy, Rob Linsley.

Ancient history's popularity was reflected on the website boredofstudies.org yesterday afternoon. "I must admit I'm gonna miss ancient, it was my favourite subject," one said.

"I didn't want to stop writing," said another.

Ms Bosworth said the paper, which covered subjects ranging from Julius Caesar to Jezebel, was fair, if unusually specific. Questions about Draco, the first to codify Athenian law, and Sparta were unexpected.

"It wasn't outside the scope of the syllabus," she said.