my students react to roman emperors

thoodleoo:

• “so is murdering all of your relatives just, like…a thing if you’re emperor”
• (upon hearing about hadrian and antinous) “WHAT. i want a boyfriend to make a cult for me and order a million statues of me when i’m dead!!”
• “can i ask a question? why is nero Like That?”
• “i wouldn’t want to be a roman emperor because i like my life, i enjoy living,”
• “so are all roman emperors basically gay?”
• (when i told them that caligula was called little boots because of a tiny soldier’s uniform he wore as a child) “awww how cute!!”
• (when i told them that caligula grew up to be…well, caligula) “aWWW LESS CUTE”
• (while researching the emperor their group was assigned) “how did our guy die? oh, assassination, big surprise”
• “oh, he boiled his wife and son alive! what a family man”
• (upon hearing some of the frivolous and/or authoritarian laws some emperors supposedly instituted) “gee, that sounds familiar…”
• (while reading aloud their group’s presentation on hadrian) “and i love to spend time working on my wall- make rome great again, y’all”