Beware the Ides of March: Learning Through Play
Selected works
Senator Biography:
Biography presented orally. Full biography here.
Caesar’s Eulogy
Eulogy presented orally. Full eulogy here.
Selected text messages and emails
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This untraditional exhibit of school work was done for an unconventional class called “Beware the Ides of March.” Each member of the class was assigned to play the role of a Roman senator in the immediate days following the assassination of Julius Caesar. It was our task to convene as the senate and decide how to rule Rome and fill the space left by Caesar. As a class, we only had to turn in two assignments: a short book report on a chapter from a book on Roman history, and an oral biography on our senator. Other than those two assignments, we were responsible for our actions in the Senate and were expected to make the most out of our experience as we role-played.
I was Servius Sulpicius Rufus, a republican. For the biography, I had to dive deep into encyclopedias and bibliographies to find any scrap of information about him. I decided it was important to play my role as a man of ambition, although I don’t think I always went about accomplishing my ambitions in the right way, and I was rightfully punished by my fellow senators. For example, I tried to bribe my classmates to vote for me for Censor. I did win, but my fellow censor put me on trial and I was made to give half my networth to the people of Rome. Although a devastating loss, it made me unassuming, and my networth was still healthy. In the end, I formed a triumvirate with Lucius Calpurnius Piso Caesoninus and Gaius Claudius Marcellus to stage a coup. We became the rulers, and I additionally managed to get myself on the jury of the trial against the assassins and was able to get my fellow republicans off scott free (or at least as nearly as I could), while at the same time eradicating my enemy, Decimus Junius Brutus Albinus.
This class exemplified the following learning goals of the Skidmore College Classics Department:
- conduct research by traditional and digital methods
- read and analyze historical documents within their social contexts and evaluate the role of the individual in ancient cultures
- present orally and in written form an argument supported by primary andsecondary sources
It also reflects the following literacies:
- Oral Communication
- Information
Want more information about the reflection? Check out my final portfolio reflection!
