Pyrrha's Roman
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title page![[the real Medusa!]](mabig1.gif)
Book 3A of the Cambridge Latin Course has a story where Modestus, a pompous Roman soldier tries to persuade a British girl called Vilbia to go out with him, after first getting his friend to knock out the girl's previous boyfriend.
This passage has been recorded by the girls who were awarded Second and Third Prizes at the 2004 Gloucestershire Classical Association Latin and Greek Reading Competition and by others who enjoyed reading the passage.
You may like to print out the passage below so that you can follow it when the recording begins ...
Modestus hears Bulbus threatening him and becomes angry.
M quid dicebas, homuncule? exitium meam exspectas?
asine! tu, quod militem Romanum vituperavisti, in magno periculo es.
mihi facile est te, tamquam hostem, dilaniare.
Strythio! te iubeo hanc pestem verberare.
Strythio, Modestus' friend, knocks Bulbus out, and then Vilbia, who has heard the commotion, tries to soothe Modestus.
V desine, mi Modeste! iste Bulbus, a te verberatus, iterum me vexare non potest.
tu es leo, iste ridiculus mus. volo te clementem esse et Bulbo parcere. placetne tibi?
M mihi placet. victoribus decorum est victis parcere. te, non istum, quaero.
V o Modeste! quam laeta sum! cur me ex omnibus puellis elegisti? quam laeta sum!
M necesse est nobis in loco secreto noctu convenire.
V id facere non ausim. pater me solam exire non vult.
ubi est hic locus?
M prope fontem deae Sulis. nonne te persuadere possum?
V mihi difficile est iussa patris neglegere, sed tibi resistere non possum.
M da mihi osculum.
V eheu! o suspirium meum! mihi necesse est ad culinam redire, tibi noctem exspectare.