House Of Caecilius

Anyone who has ever been taught Latin through the Cambridge Latin Course is very, very familiar with the House Of Caecilius. Through this band of extremely entertaining characters who reside under one house, the Cambridge Latin Course is able to provide incredibly original and fun stories that help to teach Latin in a very effective way. The stories of these characters are chronological and often link up with each other to become an ever flowing story.

Possibly the most interesting thing about the House Of Caecilius is that it actually existed. Meaning that the family, lead by Caecilius, or the pater, is not just a bunch of made up characters that the people at Cambridge came up with, but rather documented, once living people.

Caecilius

Caecilius lived in Pompeii during the first century A.D., or more specifically right about the time when Mt. Vesuvius exploded. This is very fortunate for us, but was, of course, rather unpleasant for him and his family: they were all buried in their house on the day of the eruption. But because of this everything about the man’s life was perfectly preserved and later dug up when the excavations of Pompeii began.

Lucius Caecilius Iucundus (in Rome having three names showed citizenship) was a very rich banker of the upper class who lived in a very large house. His business accounts were discovered in this house and revealed that he was also an auctioneer, tax-collector, farmer and moneylender. Some of his money was inherited from his father Lucius Caecilius Felix.

The Rest Of The House

Metella is the mother of the household, wife to Caecilius. Although the name does say "The House Of Caecilius", the house itself was probably ran by Metella, just like most houses in Rome were ran by the mother.

Quintus is the son. He is a teenage boy and the stories about him reflect this; he goes to school, throws around his disc, and chases after girls.

The two slaves of the household are Clemens and Grumio. Clemens does most of the physical housework, while Grumio plays out the role as master chef. There is one incredibly hilarious story where the two team up and go to a political rally only to get mixed up in a riot.

And of course the loveable dog Cerberus, who enjoys jumping up onto the table at dinner time.