Line #10 Literature/CambridgeLatinCourse


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/clc.jpg]]
2	A series of Latin textbooks published by Cambridge University Press and designed for use in secondary schools. Due to the scarcity of Latin textbooks (driven by the fact that most schools don't teach Latin) it basically became the only one used in the UK for the past forty years, causing most former classics students to remember it. It even got a shout-out in ''Series/DoctorWho''.
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4	Someone decided the best way to teach Latin was to write a set of stories in the language most of which link in an arc... sort of. This forms the main part of the course.
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6	Not to be confused with ''Literature/EcceRomani'', the equivalent Latin textbook sometimes used in the US, published by [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prentice_Hall Prentice Hall]].
7	----
8	!! These textbooks provide examples of:
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10	* ActuallyPrettyFunny: Actius, the great actor, doesn't mind that his performance has been upstaged by a tightrope walker...because he's watching the tightrope walker too.
11	* ArcVillain: Eutychus, the Alexandrian racketeer who only appears for a single chapter in Unit II.
12	* AwfulWeddedLife: Salvius and Rufilla are quite the dysfunctional couple. This is partly to demonstrate that he's a ContrastingSequelMainCharacter when compared to Caecilius and Metella's relatively happy marriage.
13	* BadBoss: Salvius in general, especially when he executes a slave being sold to him because the slave is sick, and therefore "useless."
14	* BasedOnATrueStory: Chapter 8 tells the story of a real event, in which a gladiatorial games turned into a bloody melee between the citizens of Pompeii and Nuceria.
15	* BavarianFireDrill: Salvius justifies his crimes against Cogidubnus by saying he's acting under orders from the Emperor. It's unclear if this is really the case, but it doesn't help him when his case comes to trial.
16	* BeautifulSlaveGirl: Poppaea and Melissa in Unit I.
17	* BigBad: Salvius. (And Vesuvius as well, in a sense.)
18	* DangerouslyCloseShave: A barber accidentally cuts a customer when a young man comes into his shop and recites a dirty poem. Multus sanguis fluit.
19	* DirtyCoward: Modestus and Belimicus.
20	* DoomedHometown: The first book is set in ''Pompeii''.
21	* DownerEnding: [[spoiler:Everybody except Quintus and Clemens dies in the Mt. Vesuvius eruption, the end.]]
22	** Happens more than once. [[spoiler:Barbillus dies thanks to his [[BackAlleyDoctor crooked astrologer]], without getting the chance to make amends with his estranged son Rufus. Then Cogidubnus dies and Salvius seizes power in Britannia, despite Quintus's best efforts, and [[BarbarianHero Dumnorix]]'s HeroicSacrifice.]] It's rare to find a language learning course with a per capita body count higher than Series/GameOfThrones, but there you go.
23	* DracoInLeatherPants[=/=]RonTheDeathEater: In-universe. Cephalus writes a letter to Cogidubnus which downplays his own guilt in the assassination plot while exaggerating Memor's.
24	* DyingMomentOfAwesome: Belimicus decides to go out with as much dignity as possible, hurling a dagger into Salvius just before dying of poison. Unfortunately, it doesn't kill him.
25	* ElvesVsDwarves: Occurs in "The Debate", with the elegant, cultured Greeks being Elves and the soldiering, engineering Romans being Dwarves:
26	-->'''Quintus:''' [The Romans] are the strongest. We triumph over the ferocious barbarians. We have [[UsefulNotes/TheRomanEmpire the largest empire]].
27	-->'''Alexander:''' We Greeks are creators. You look at Greek statues, you read Greek books, and listen to Greek rhetors.
28	* FatAndSkinny: Modestus and Strythio, the comic-relief legionaries.
29	* {{Flashback}}: Book 2 provided a not only a flashback [[HowWeGotHere of Clemens' time in between Britannia and Pompeii]] but a flashback inside this flashback.
30	* ForegoneConclusion: Again, the first book takes place in ''Pompeii''.
31	* ForgingTheWill: Salvius pulls this when Cogidubnus dies.
32	* FrameUp: Salvius makes Cogidubnus out to be a traitor.
33	* GreaterScopeVillain: The Emperor, if Salvius really was acting under his orders.
34	* HaveAGayOldTime: Domicilia est anus.[[labelnote:*]]Domicilia is an old woman[[/labelnote]]
35	* HeelFaceDoorSlam: Belimicus decides to denounce Salvius's crimes upon realizing the latter means to kill him, but Salvius reveals that he's already poisoned him.
36	* HisNameIs: When confronted by Cogidubnus, Memor attempts to name Salvius as the one behind the assassination attempt, but Salvius cuts him off and places Cogidubnus under house arrest.
37	* HistoricalDomainCharacter: The Caecilius family, Salvius, Cogidubnus...
38	%%* HistoricalVillainUpgrade: Salvius
39	* IdiotBall: When Salvius claims Cogidubnus to be a traitor, Agricola becomes enraged and sends out soldiers to imprison Cogidubnus and crush his regime. After they leave, he calms down and asks Salvius for actual evidence of wrongdoing by Cogidubnus. The text draws attention to the fact that he didn't ask these questions ''before'' sending out the soldiers.
40	* LoveTriangle: Bulbus loves Vilbia, Vilbia wants Modestus...
41	* MilesGloriosus: Modestus.
42	* OutOfFocus: Quintus drifts out of the limelight as protagonist as the stories focus increasingly on Salvius's antics. After safely reaching Agricola's camp in Stage 26, he doesn't show up again until Salvius's trial 14 chapters later.
43	* PetTheDog: Cephalus tries to prevent Quintus from drinking the poison meant for Cogidubnus, even though this blows the plot and leads directly to his own death. [[ThanatosGambit Though this is possibly what he wanted to happen.]]
44	* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: Salvius is of the opinion that Pompeians and the British are all deceitful.
45	* PrayerOfMalice: ''Defixiones'' thrown into the holy spring at Aquae Sulis.
46	* PutOnABus: Clemens leaves the series toward the end of book 2... by staying in Alexandria to run his glass shop. It's looking more like a [[LongBusTrip Long Bus Trip]] now, though.
47	* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Agricola and Salvius both fire these at each other after Quintus reveals the truth.
48	* RelationshipSabotage: Bulbus curses Modestus for stealing Vilbia.
49	* TheStarscream: Salvius betrays and usurps Cogidubnus, either out of ambition or under orders from the Emperor. Belemicus then turns against Salvius when he finds himself dissatisfied with his reward for helping him.
50	* ThanatosGambit: Cephalus writes a letter to Cogidubnus explaining Memor's role in the assassination plot. Cogidubnus receives it just after Cephalus dies.
51	* TookALevelInBadass: Quintus starts out as kind of a loser. As the series continues, he ends up [[spoiler:killing alligators in Book 2, thwarting poison plots in Book 3, and prosecuting against Salvius in a Roman court in Book 4]].
52	* VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory: Caecilius was a real moneylender who actually lived in pre-Vesuvius Pompeii, his real life wife was called Metella, their son was called Quintus, and quite a few of the anecdotes in the book are based on the writings that he left behind. But Caecilius actually died in an earthquake 10 years before the destruction of Pompeii.
53	** Given a blink-and-you'll-miss-it ShoutOut near the end of Book 1, mentioning the earthquake but changing the actual happening a little - Iulius asks why Caecilius wasn't scared of the enormous cloud and ashes, and he replies, "'iamprīdem terra tremuit. iamprīdem tremōrēs vīllās et mūrōs dēlēvērunt. sed larēs vīllam meam et familiam meam servāvērunt." ("a long time ago, the ground shook. A long time ago, the tremors destroyed houses and walls. But the household gods saved my family and my house.")
54	** The Vilbia curse is actually real. It was one of the many curses that was tossed into the spring at Aquae Sulis (known to you and me as Bath) and is one of the more famous of them.
55	*** One theory is that the Vilbia curse is actually a misspelling/miscarving of "fibula", meaning amulet, rather than referring to an actual person.
56	** Salvius and his wife, Rufilla, were real people, too.
57	** Also real was Lucius Marcius Memor, from the third book.
58	* UnclePennybags: Lucius Caecilius Iucundus is a rich banker and tax collector who enjoys a good dirty joke, takes his son to the baths for his birthday, and is [[PapaWolf out of his mind with worry]] when separated from his family during the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius.
59	* WhamLine: "That will is false. I wrote it, not Cogidubnus."
60	* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Grumio. Kind of. The obvious answer is that he died in Vesuvius... but the book never clarifies. He just kind of disappears after the first story in Stage 12.
61	** One of the workbooks reveals that Grumio survived. He abandoned Caecelius and his family and eventually escaped to Britannia, but ended up fleeing there after finding out one of the people he abandoned, Quintus, was coming to visit.
62	* YouAreAlreadyDead: Said by Salvius to Belimicus after serving him poisoned food.

Context Literature / CambridgeLatinCourse