Miss Brice (Head of Classics)

On Monday, members of the school community may have been intrigued to see Mr Stretton going around school wearing a Roman toga. After lunch, they may have been even more surprised to see red paint on the back of his toga, after he visited the Art department to ask them to paint on some ‘blood’.

This is becoming an annual fixture as the Classics Department mark the 15th March, otherwise known as the Ides of March, since on this day in 44BC, Julius Caesar was assassinated by his fellow Roman senators in the heart of government, the Senate in the Roman forum. This leads to many engaging discussions both in lessons and in the corridor about the nature of autocracy and corruption, more recent parallels of arrogant leadership and dictatorship, and the drama of a violent transfer of power and the ensuing chaos. Not to mention the shock of betrayal by one’s closest friends. ‘Et tu, Brute?’