Sophia’s Visions, Part 19. The Antonine plague brought back from Parthia, Galen the physician, and Caracalla’s massacre of the young men of Alexandria in 215 CE. A C1 English lesson on the future in the past, with a gamebook.
Alexandria · the 754th year since the founding of Rome · 1 CE
Sophia’s Visions, Part 19 · The future in the past: was going to, was about to, was to, would · C1
Think first. Is it ever dangerous to laugh at the powerful? Should we stop doing it because it is dangerous?
While you read, notice how Sophia talks about things that were going to happen, from a point in the past: they were about to…, he was to…, nobody knew they would…
Philo: “Alexandrians love to laugh at their rulers. That day we all laughed. Sophia did not. Read it.”
In the theatre square, a troupe of mime actors was performing a play about the Roman prefect. The actor playing him wore a huge fat belly made of cushions and a toga three sizes too small, and every time he tried to make a speech, he tripped over his own feet. The crowd howled. Alexandrians had always been famous for this: no ruler, no king, no prefect was safe from their jokes.
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