Most Cambridge protester ever sprays Latin messages across luxury properties
The poshest of protesters has attacked a new £5m development along the River Cam as only Classics students can – with graffiti in Latin
This particular persona non grata painted the phrase ’locus in domos loci populum’ – which roughly means ‘Local homes for local people’ – in large white letters on four luxury homes.
For good measure, an estate agents’ ‘For Sale’ sign outside one of the waterside houses, which are equipped with private moorings on the Cam, was also daubed with ‘local lives’.
Mary Beard, Professor of Classics at Newnham College, was among those to have looked into the scrawling.
“This is a bit hard to translate, but I think what they’re trying to say is that a lovely place has been turned into houses,” she explained.
The graffiti appeared to object to the lack of affordable new homes for locals in Cambridge, with property prices exploding in the last five years to an exceptional average of £421,000.
“This is a bit hard to translate, but I think what they’re trying to say is that a lovely place has been turned into houses”
Mary Beard, Professor of Classics
Yesterday the city’s residents said they believed a disgruntled local academic was most likely responsible for the intellectual tag.
“The sentiment is perfectly correct but the act of execution is not what you want to see about,” said a retired local biochemist. “I would be very surprised if it wasn’t done by a Cambridge-educated activist.”
Twitter users were also in situ to poke fun at the posh protest.
The Guardian commentator Dawn Foster tweeted: “Is Latin graffiti the most Cambridge thing to happen ever?”
Dr Charles Weiss, a Classics Fellow of Clare College, translated the slogan as ‘a place for homes equals places for people’.
Amidst furious accusations of “shocking Latin” (Classicists and Latin A-Level students will no doubt be anguished at the erratic use of cases, lack of main verb, and misapplication of the accusative place to which), Dr Weiss said it might be ‘pidgin Latin’, a modern take on the ancient language.
A spokesman for Cambridgeshire Police has confirmed officers are investigating reports of criminal damage involving four properties. They were called to the area at circa 8am
