Augustus said “I Found Rome in Brick and left it in Cardboard” ?!!
Augustus said “I Found Rome in Brick and left it in Cardboard” ?!!, By Guest Blogger Sian Squire, Teacher of A-level Classical Civilization at Shrewsbury College, Shropshire UK
We are a college in Shrewsbury, UK that loves to find new ways of teaching the Ancient World. Our learners are aged 16-18 and there’s often a lot of writing essays so I’ve been trying to “jazz up” our curriculum.
One of the modules that we teach here is called “Imperial Image” and asks us to talk to our students about the buildings that Emperor Augustus made in Ancient Rome. Augustus was the grand-nephew of the Roman politician Julius Caesar.
In 44BC Julius Caesar was stabbed to death and the people in Rome were very shocked. He was declared a god in 42BC. According to legend, a comet appeared at the funeral games for Caesar and this was taken as a sign that he had become divine. It appears on many of the coins of Augustus Caesar as a reminder to people that Augustus was the Son of a God.
One of our students made a 3 D printed copy of one of these coins, getting the plans from the internet and hand painting it.
Julius Caesar’s grand-nephew, Octavian (who later became Emperor Augustus) built a temple to the god Caesar in the Roman Forum (marketplace) which was dedicated in 29BC.
Students decided to research and build this using photocopying boxes. They found pictures of the temple on Wikipedia. I simply let them build it, supplying nothing more than the box, Sellotape and scissors –the base of the temple is made out of the lid of the photocopying box, the columns from rolled up paper and the main part of the temple was from the main base of the boxes. This was great because it was memorable for the students, promoted research skills and demonstrated their creative side.
Students also made models of Augustus’ Altar of Peace (Ara Pacis), the Theatre of Marcellus and the Triumphal arch of Augustus too!
