1. Plurals Words ending in –a become –ae in the plural:
ancilla ancillae femina feminae
slave girl slave girls woman women
Words ending in –us or –er become –i in the plural:
servus servi faber fabri
dominus domini
master masters
Most other words add –es in the plural (like Gollum does):
miles milites saltatrix saltatrices
gladiator gladiatores dancer dancers
gladiator gladiators
Explain that last week we dealt with one person at a time, this week we shall look at more than one.  NB recap slides are available at the end of this ppt.
Remind pupils that a noun is a person/ thing.  What letter do you put on the end of nouns in English to make them plural – more than one; elicit slaves, soldiers, masters?  Does this work for every noun? 
Ask pupils how to say more than one man/ men, woman/ women; explain that usually you can spot plurals by s in English, and –es in Latin, but there are different endings like man/ men in English, and –i or –ae in Latin.
ANY word in Latin ending in –a will become -ae in the plural; -us or –er becomes -i; most other words add -es.

2. Here are some useful words and phrases
in civitate: in the town
civis: citizen
amicus: friend
conferunt: chat
in paedagogio: in the slave-quarters
Each pupil will have a sheet with all the characters on it, encourage pupils to translate the sentences, picking up clues from the pictures and the words from last week/ on the board, as well as similar words in English, to work out the vocabulary.  Encourage pupils to write answers on the sheets & to pick out recurring words, e.g. sunt: (they) are. 
Ask pupils what happens to the end of the verb (remind them that this is the doing word, always at the end of the sentence) when more than one person is doing it –nt ending. 
Answers: Verecunda and Nigella are girls.  The girls live in the town.
Caius Gracilis and Marcus Verrius Celsus are citizens.  The citizens live in the town.
Lucius and Primus are friends.  The friends chat in the forum.
Servandus and Nigella are slaves.  The slaves work in the slave-school.  
Marcus, Servandus and Nigella live in the house.  Servandus and Nigella work in the slave-school.  Marcus works in the forum.
The soldiers work in the town.  
Credit: Cori, Giacomo Savani

3. Latin Verb Endings labor – o I work labora – s you work
labora – t (s)he works
labora – mus we work
labora – tis you (pl.) work
labora – nt they work
sum I am sumus we are
es you are estis you are
est (s)he is sunt they are
Emphasise the two-part nature of Latin words; the beginning gives the meaning, the end gives the person doing the verb, the subject.  This can be practised using dice.
You could compare this to website addresses: verbs give the www – (what it means, who does it, when they do it, the tense, which they could meet later) – and the most important code is at the end of the website address, after the slash, so the –o, -s, -t etc go after the slash.

4. Roman Numerals I 1 XX 20 II 2 XL 40 III 3 L 50 IV 4 XC 90 V 5 C 100
VI D 500
VII 7 M 1000
VIII 8
IX 9
X MMXVIII?
The figure at the bottom is 2018; this should appear at the end of any BBC television programmes produced this year.

5. Nigella and Servandus are both listed on the curse tablet from the Vine Street house, which gives a list of all the slaves (including Servandus himself, who wrote the tablet) from that household. The fact that Servandus’ name appears as the dedicator of the tablet indicates either that he could write himself, or he had the resources to get someone else to write it for him; either way, the decision to write this in Latin suggests that Servandus judged this the appropriate language to address the god Maglus, known only in Leicester.
Here we envisage Servandus as a senior slave in Marcus’ household. Nigella (literally translated as ‘little black girl’) was one the slaves under his control. There is no reason that she could not have been literate too.
The slave quarters – paedagogium – are most likely to have been located in the western part of the house shown above with a service area, perhaps the small room north of the kitchen. They could also have been in the separate building where the tablet was found, in the top corner of the plan above. Mortar adhering to the tablet suggests that it was stuck in a wall and it was found in a pile of broken wall plaster which had been discarded during the demolition of a nearby building.
Servandus
Nigella
Credits: ULAS

6. Servandus Curse A name deleted – why?
1. Here you can see the tablet with the names of the 2 slaves and the use of the unusual word ‘paedagogium’- the slave-quarters.
2. Here is the translation of the curse tablet, which explains why Servandus looks so cold in our pictures: he’s lost his cloak. We also have the mystery of the deleted name (to be addressed in a later session).
3. From the top the fourth line down in the middle S = Servandus’ name
4. From the bottom the seventh line up N = Nigella’s name
Translation:
‘I give to the god Maglus him who did wrong from the slave-quarters; I give him who (did) theft <the cloak> from the slave-quarters; who stole the cloak of Servandus. Silvester, Ri(g)omandus, Senilis, Venustinus, Vorvena, Calaminus, Felicianus, Ruf<a>edo, Vendicina, Ingenuinus, Iuventius, Alocus, Cennosus, Germanus, Senedo, Cunovendus, Regalis, Ni(g)ella, Senicianus (deleted). I give (that the god Maglus) before the ninth day take away him who stole the cloak of Servandus.’
There are the names of 19 suspects, including one erased (probably Senicianus). They are an interesting mixture of Roman names like Servandus (e.g. Silvester), ‘Roman’ names popular in Celtic-speaking provinces (e.g. Senilis), and ‘Celtic’ names comparatively rare (e.g. Cunovendus) or even unattested (e.g. Rufaedo).
The writer seems to have twice attempted the rare word paedagogium, variously meaning ‘a training establishment for slave-boys’, ‘slave quarters’, ‘(servile) staff’
A name deleted – why?
Credits: ULAS, RSO Tomlin

7. A Roman Mystery
How many slaves were there: what is the correct Roman numeral?
How many slaves were men? What is the correct Roman numeral? Create the Latin sentence for “? male slaves live in the house.”
How many slaves were women? What is the correct Roman numeral? Create the Latin sentence for “? female slaves live in the house.”
Where did slaves work in the house: what is the Latin word? Create the Latin sentence for “? slaves work in the slave-quarters.”
Which slave has written this tablet?
Why is he angry?
Whom has he asked for help?
What do you think this person will do to help?
Whom does he suspect? All the other slaves.
Why has one name been crossed out?
Answers:
How many slaves were there: what is the correct Roman numeral
? 20 XX (incl Servandus & the crossed-out Senicianus).
How many slaves were men (remind them to use –us/ -is/-er endings for men): what is the correct Roman numeral? Create the Latin sentence for x male slaves live in the house. 17 XVII xvii servi in domo habitant.
How many slaves were women (remind them to use –a ending for women): what is the correct Roman
numeral? Create the Latin sentence for x female slaves live in the house. 3 III iii ancillae in domo habitant.
Where did slaves work in the house: what is the Latin word?
Create the Latin sentence for x slaves work in the slave-quarters (remind them of vocabulary used previously/ on sheets). They worked in the slave-quarters –the paedagogium. XX servi in paedagogio laborant.
Which slave has written this tablet? Servandus.
Why is he angry? He has lost his cloak.
Whom has he asked for help? The god Maglus (this is the only evidence from the whole Roman Empire for this particular god; if they think this unlikely, refer them to Pratchett’s ‘Small Gods’).
What do you think this person will do to help? (They can be creative, but you could talk about punishments from other curse tablets e.g the other curse tablet from the house.) Smite the person from on high: other tablets talk of gods destroying people, crushing bones, making someone’s insides burn. Let them have fun with this, but have a quiet word if someone seems to be enjoying it too much.
Whom does he suspect? All the other slaves.
Why has one name been crossed out? He has cleared Senicianus from suspicion. 

8. A quick recap: who were…?
Credits: Giacomo Savani

9. And how did you say…? I am you are (s)he is I work you work
(s)he works
sum es
est
Remember to look at the END of the verb carefully
laboro
laboras
laborat
The verb is always at the END of the sentence