Tag Archives: Cicero

Latin is a language As dead as dead can be, It killed the ancient Romans And now it’s killing me. Such was the oft muttered rhyme that could be heard in the hushed corridors of a North London Grammar school, circa the late 1960s. Indeed, I suspect this echoed in most classrooms up and down the country as teenagers struggled to recite “amo, amas amat, amamus, amatis, amant”, even though the social and emotional significance of the verb had little relevance to ‘Norell minor’ at that age. As O levels (or GCSEs as they are now known) appeared over the horizon, we had to select a subject in addition to the usual Maths, Add. Maths (whatev