multus sanguis fluit / by Anthony Gibbins

Ask someone who studied Latin from the Cambridge Course (long enough ago that they have forgotten most of what they knew) what they remember. I’ve tried this on numerous occasions and the first response has always been one of the following. Metella est in atrio. flocci non facio. multus sanguis fluit. Metella is in the atrium. I don’t give a damn. Much blood flows.

In the pages that follow you will read a retelling of the Cambridge story that ends with much blood flowing. I taught myself Latin from the Cambridge course, and I have a hell of a lot of respect for its methods. It’s not perfect – no text is – and it only got me so far. But it revolutionised how Latin was being taught at the time of its publication. It’s the reason that I read Latin, rather than translate it. And there are some really great stories. versus scurrilis est.

At this moment Claudia is walking to the tonstrina to visit the tonsor. The tonsor, named Alan, is her friend.