**Spoilers ahead!**
A form of this blog was first published here.
The strength of the Cambridge Latin Course has always been its stories. Far more than just vehicles for language learning, they are key to the success of the course. In the early days of the CLC pilot, teachers reported soaring motivation in Latin lessons. Students could not wait for the next instalment of the narrative in their little orange pamphlets. In fact, Pat Story, Director at the Project from 1987 to 1996, has often described the stories as Pompeian soap opera.
These days the stories are no less well-loved, from the fanfiction the CLC inspires to the eternal popularity of Grumio. Conversations with teachers since 2017 have also helped us identify which stories seem strange or outdated to students in today’s classrooms. We have also visited schools and spoken to the students themselves who told us that their enthusiasm for the ancient world has led them to wonder what life was like for the people we hear less about.
To this end, we were keen to improve the representation of women, people of color, those with disabilities and marginalized groups such as enslaved men and women, and to offer new opportunities for critical engagement with the Roman world.
The new edition is still peopled with the characters and overarching storyline that students love. Book 1, set in Pompeii in the first century AD, is based on the familia of Lucius Caecilius Iucundus. Students are introduced to Roman Italy and its wealth of archaeological evidence, such as the house and business records of Caecilius himself. There are many opportunities to develop skills of historical investigation as well as a sense of investment in the familia of Caecilius, whose members we follow in subsequent books.
In Books 2 and 3, Caecilius’ son Quintus visits two very different provinces of the Roman empire, Britain and Egypt (specifically Alexandria). In Egypt he is joined by characters familiar from Book 1: his sister Lucia; Clemens, a man previously enslaved in Caecilius’ household; and Caecilius’ friend Barbillus, a Syrian merchant living in Egypt. These books introduce our villain, the Roman politician Salvius, as well as a host other characters, including Togidubnus, the British king who falls victim to Salvius’ schemes, and his wife Catia.
Due to the setting in the provinces of Britain and Egypt, students encounter the vast geographical and cultural range of the empire. This presents opportunities to explore the experiences of different people within the Roman world, as well as the different methods of conquest and subjugation employed by the Romans.
Britain is, at the time of the stories, a relatively new province where military conquest is ongoing. The political and social landscape is very different in Egypt, which had been subject to foreign rule for longer, first Persian, then Greek and Roman. The city of Alexandria also provides students with their first example of a large, prosperous cultural center, so that when they come to study Rome they have a relevant point of comparison. That the first such city considered in depth is North African also challenges Eurocentric views and acknowledges the deeply complex and interwoven cultures of the ancient world.
The latter half of Book 3 and Book 4 brings the series to Rome for its conclusion and the comeuppance of Salvius. Lucia re-enters the narrative and the machinations of the imperial court take center stage. As in previous editions, Rome is deliberately made the final location of the story. We finish at the seat of imperial power, having seen how that power affects the lives of people across the empire. By this point, students will have developed the skills of critical analysis necessary to engage with evidence from ancient Rome and to draw nuanced and complex conclusions.
This setting also provides a natural ‘jumping off point’ to the authentic classical Latin literature which forms the second half of Book 4. In acknowledgement of this, Books 3 and 4 contain more Latin sources in translation as part of the cultural background material and students are asked more challenging questions when it comes to analysis and literary criticism.
Building on the 5th edition
When the North American 5th Edition was released in 2015, Caecilius and Metella gained a daughter, (Caecilia) Lucia. Lucia allowed exploration of the lives of Roman girls and issues specific to their experience, such as arranged marriage and political disenfranchisement, as well as offering a new viewpoint on events. Lucia’s death in Stage 12 was an unpopular decision, and we felt that her character had great potential alongside her brother in the later books, so we have worked hard to integrate her into the narrative of Books 2 and 4.
When it comes to the representation of women, the story venalicius must be one of the most discussed of the entire CLC. Modern students react with distaste to what they perceive as Caecilius’ ‘creepy’ behavior as he inspects Melissa before purchasing her and her ‘coquettish’ behavior feels outdated and out of place. Her objectification by the men of the household becomes a punchline to one of the course’s most notorious jokes; Metella it seems is not happy with the arrival of the young, pretty enslaved girl. Students today are much more aware of power dynamics and misogyny, not to mention issues of consent and sexual assault: for an excellent discussion see Joffe (2019).
In the new edition, this story has been replaced with ornatrix in which Melissa and her point of view are centered instead of her enslavers. In this story, and throughout the books, the tropes of the “loyal” or “hard working” slave are avoided, following specialist advice on appropriate language use. We hope the new edition helps enable teachers to interrogate Roman imperialism and enslavement. The books have been extensively reviewed by individuals of different identities and from a variety of backgrounds, and we have listened to their feedback and ideas; a huge thank you goes to all those people for their invaluable critical friendship and advice.
Another major development for the North American 5th edition was the colorful line drawings which accompany the stories. The popular misconception of the Roman world as predominantly white, inhabited by people with white skin, in white garments, surrounded by white buildings and statues, is not easily challenged by black and white line drawings.
The team in 2015 attempted to convey a sense of the multi-cultural nature of (in particular) Pompeii, Rome, and Egypt through different skin colors. This work remains a form of estimation or ‘best guess’: there is insufficient evidence to calculate what proportion of people in any area of the Roman empire had a particular skin color. We only know that human appearances varied then as much as they do now, and communities were not ethnically homogenous. One prominent character who has been re-drawn to better reflect his Greco-Syrian heritage and culture is Barbillus, who now appears as a close family friend in Book I in addition to his major role in Book II.
References
Joffe, B. (2019), Teaching the venalicius story in the age of #MeToo: a reconsideration, The Classical Outlook, Vol. 94.3, pg. 125f.
