iStockphoto
More than a dozen men who served as the emperor of Rome adopted “Caesar” as their official title after Augustus ushered in that particular trend. More than 100 students in Australia spent a semester learning about his exploits while preparing for an exam they didn’t have to take after discovering the curriculum was supposed to revolve around Julius Caesar instead.
If most guys really do think about the Roman Empire as much as TikTok would lead you to believe, I probably don’t need to do a deep dive on the series of events that led to what was formerly a republic transforming into a domineering force overseen by the scores of men who ruled after Julius Caesar ascended to the de facto throne in 49 BC.
His time as dictator came to an end after he was assassinated by a group of senators who stabbed him to death five years after he took control. However, their efforts to preserve the republic failed when the successor who dubbed himself “Augustus Caesar” took his place and leveraged the backlash to the death of his adoptive father to cement his role as ruler during a 13-year reign that officially ushered in the empire that would exist until the end of the fifth century.
Both of those men left behind a rich legacy that’s still being studied more than 2,000 years after their deaths, although some students in Australia got an unexpected surprise after discovering they were taught about the wrong one while preparing for an exam about the achievements of the other.
140 high school students in Australia got to skip an ancient history exam after they were taught about Augustus Caesar instead of Julius Caesar
On Wednesday, high school seniors in Queensland sat down for a statewide ancient history exam that served as the culmination of a curriculum concerning the life and death of Julius Caesar.
However, according to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, that came as quite a surprise to students at nine high schools who were under the impression they were going to be tested on Augustus Caesar after spending the term leading up to the exam learning about him from their teachers.
The outlet says Augustus was the topic of the test between 2020 and 2024 before the Queensland Curriculum and Assessment Authority opted to shift the attention to Julius heading into 2025. Officials say they informed the 180 schools they oversee about that pivot more than a year before the change went into effect, but there were apparently nine different learning institutions that didn’t get the memo.
The 140 students who were impacted did not ultimately have to sit down for the exam, which was supposed to count 25% of their grade (they will ultimately be evaluated based on the remaining 75%). Queensland’s education minister also took the QCAA to task while promising steps will be taken to ensure a similar mistake doesn’t happen in the future.