7O Toga Day

This semester 7O studied four ancient civilisations – Egypt, Greece, Rome and China. On Monday 7 June 7O and their History teacher Mr de Bres held a Toga Day to mark the culmination of their studies on Ancient Rome. The students dressed in togas, performed plays about the assassination of Caesar on the steps at the old entrance to the school, participated in a ceremonial procession and finished the day with some ‘Roman-inspired’ food.

Afterwards students were asked to respond to the following questions about their Toga Day experiences. Here are some of their responses:

What did you do to prepare for Toga Day?

I bought a bed sheet and figured out how to tie a toga. I made a laurel wreath out of printed out leaves and made a makeshift belt out of wool. I scrunched up red paper to make a very bad attempt at fake blood – Kai

I found a white table cloth at my aunts and used that for my toga. My mum found a golden rope in her old designer box and I used it as my belt – Danielle

I prepared for Toga Day by first looking for a white bed sheet that wasn’t currently being used. I then watched a youtube tutorial on how to make a toga and practised making it. After learning how to tie up the toga properly, I then looked for a rubber band to keep the knots together – Denzel

I prepared for Toga Day by getting a white sheet for toga day to wear as a toga. I watched many tutorials on the best ways to tie a toga. I prepared for the play by memorising my part and helping out my group with the script – Daniel

What did your group do to prepare for Toga Day?

Our group did a lot to prepare for Toga Day. We selected our group, figured out our roles and began writing a script. We finished the script over the weekend and a few people made props. We printed scripts for the day and helped one another to tie togas – Daniel

Our group prepared for the play by taking turns practicing each of our lines. We also discussed what accents and voices each character would have – Denzel

We practiced our scripts and talked about how we would present our voices – Maxaviar

Apart from the food, what did you enjoy most about Toga Day?

The togas and the plays! The plays were really fun, and we also got to wear togas, which, though they were hard to put on, were really fun – Miranda

Being able to be in ancient roman clothes and learning about Ancient Rome – Clarissa

My favourite part of Toga Day was watching the performances – Emma

My favourite part of Toga Day was the procession around ‘Ancient Rome’ – Umasuthan

The procession was fun – Alexander

I enjoyed that we got to perform instead of doing work for almost two whole periods – Matthew

What did you learn about Julius Caesar and his assassination from the play?

Many people wanted Caesar dead in the Senate and he should not have tried to be a dictator for life – Kai

I learnt that Julius Caesar was egotistical and thought that everyone loved him even though that was not the case…obviously – Danielle

He was betrayed – Lucas

He died. Other than that, I learnt that Julius Caesar was stabbed 23 times – Aidan

I learned that Julius Caesar (as depicted in the script) was snobby, self-centred and took no heed of the soothsayer’s warning, resulting in his downfall – Matthew

Julius Caesar’s assassination involved not only senators Marcus Brutus, Cassius and Trebonius, but also more than 50 others. His final words were “You too Brutus?” which obviously meant that he had trusted Brutus and was surprised when he was there. However, after Caesar’s death, because the assassins wanted Rome to become a republic, they did not know what to do next or who should lead Rome – Denzel