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Shakespeare's Script |
 Class Script |
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Character Study: To better understand the life and times of the people of ancient Rome, we will be researching the everyday lives of characters from William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. You will use resources of encyclopedias, cd-roms, texts and the internet to help you find answers to our search topics:
What did my character--
The outcome of your investigation will be presented to class in the following formats:
1. A 3 to 5 page report that contains:
2. A shoebox sized model of your character's home(extra credit)
3. Your performance in the Class presentation of Shakespeare's play.
Report: Thursday, May 27
Performance: Tuesday night 7:45, May 25
Format help can be found in Write Source 2000 for "Classroom Report" page 286 and "Bibliographic Model Entries"page 283
Mythology Sites
Whole Script http://the-tech.mit.edu/Shakespeare/Tragedy/juliuscaesar/juliuscaesar.all.html
Rome. A street.
Enter FLAVIUS, MARULLUS, and certain Commoners
FLAVIUS
Hence! home, you idle creatures get you home:
Is this a holiday? what! know you not,
Being mechanical, you ought not walk
Upon a labouring day without the sign
Of your profession? Speak, what trade art thou?
First Commoner
Why, sir, a carpenter.
MARULLUS
Where is thy leather apron and thy rule?
What dost thou with thy best apparel on?
You, sir, what trade are you?
Second Commoner
Truly, sir, in respect of a fine workman, I am but,
as you would say, a cobbler.
MARULLUS
But what trade art thou? answer me directly.
Second Co>
Back to Top: Sorry script is too long to reprint here!
"Caesar, beware of Brutus, take heed of Cassius, come not near Casca, trust not Trebonius, Decius Brutus loves thee not, the mighty Gods defend thee. . . "
Those were the words of a Roman teacher named Artemidorus. He tried to warn Caesar by giving him a scroll with warnings on it, but he was interrupted by Decius who wouldn't let the King know what was going to happen to him. So Artemidorus was not successful. Now I guess you'd like to know more about the teachers of Rome. I'll start with what they wore.
Teachers wore a long shirt called a tunic, though a slave wore a raggedy gray tunic. Then, over the tunic would be a toga, a roman robe that was trimmed with purple for senators and the higher or elite class. But the teacher would wear a plain white toga. There would have been a clasp to fasten it at the shoulder. Everyone wore sandals with long straps that criss-crossed up their leg. A soldier though. would wear a military cloak called a sagum, or paludamentum.
So now you're probably wondering what these people ate. Well, the daily food of a typical day would be pigs, hens, geese, honey, cheese, bread, olives, apples and figs. They drank mainly milk and wine. The things they used in making meals were fish, honey, pepper, wines, herbs, marrow, beans, peas, onions lettuce, snails. and oysters.
With these ingredients they made elaborate feasts at their festivals. For first course would be oil and egg sauce, stuffed door mice, and peacock eggs. The main course consisted of chicken, deer, ostrich, doves, baby pig, lobster, and boars head. And the last course would be fruit, honey cakes, and stuffed dates. So as you can see, they ate a little differently than we eat today!
The everyday life of a teacher was teaching students who came to learn basic reading, writing, and arithmetic. They would come to the teacher's own house. Though important, teachers only got paid the same amount every month as a carpenter was paid every day! So as you call see, it wasn' t the best job to get if you wanted to be rich back in the days of the Roman Empire. But not very many families could afford paying for lessons in school. But what is interesting, is the families that could afford it not only had their children taught, but also their household slaves. (But only sometimes.) Imagine sending slaves to school!
The teachers were very strict. They followed the rule, "A man who has not been flogged is not trained." So even though the teacher was responsible for all his subjects, he would not be afraid to use a cane or strap on any of them. Most students just learned reading, writing and arithmetic, but the teacher also taught Latin and Greek literature plus rhetoric and politics. Rhetoric was an important skill to know, because the Romans believed that rhetoric was the mark of a gentleman.
So now you know about what the teachers did for a living. So who did they worship? What was their religion? Well, they worshipped many Gods. These are just a few, Jupiter-ruler of all Gods, Juno, Mars, Minerva, Venus Goddess of live, Mercury, Mithras, Apollo, and Hercules. Imagine having to worship that many Gods ! They prayed to the Gods for certain things such as good crops, good births, successful wars, what to do if they needed to make a decision, and much more. They believed that if they gave the Gods offerings, they would be happy and help the Romans. So they sacrificed animals on offering tables. The animals would probably be the best of the farm, so the Gods would become even more pleased.
The Romans also believed in many holidays! There were 200 holidays in the year, that's more than half of the year! ! So what did they do on these holidays? Well they loved watching gladiators fight to the death in a huge coliseum. It was a huge circular building with a stage at the bottom. Here there was gladiatorial combats as well as people being punished by being thrown in with lions and they were eaten alive with a crowd of thousands of citizens watching.
But don't think all the Romans did was watch bloody fights and deaths on their holidays, they also had plays as well, as musical performances in a great theater or amphitheater was a stage with seats going up on all sides. But the amazing thing about their amphitheaters was the sound. If you stood at the very top row of seats, and someone whispered something from the very, bottom the one at the top could hear it. And don't forget that these two people are hundreds of feet away from each other! That's pretty amazing.
For recreation, they also had circuses, big circuses where any one could attend. Just think of the thrill of going to the circus. Well, the circus was around back then too. The Romans also liked to gamble. They played games with dice and gambled for money, just like we do today.
At home, the father was the undisputed head of the family.
He was so powerful, that he could sell his children into slavery! He
arranged the marriages, and the daughter (who would be 12 to 14) had no
say in it whatsoever!
That's pretty harsh. But he did have a reason of doing this, it would
bring
political and economic benefits to his family.