Everyday Expressions that come from Ancient Rome

• A great fortune is a great slavery
  • Magna Servitus Est Magna Fortuna: Seneca the Younger
• A healthy mind in a healthy body
  • Mens sana in corpore sano: Juvenal
• A rolling stone gathers no moss
  • Publilius Syrus (85-43 BCE) in Sententiae
• Always the same
  • Semper Idem: Cicero
• Art is long, Life is short
  • Ars Longa, Vita Brevis: Hippocrates
• As you sow, so shall you reap
  • Ut sementem feceris, its metes: Cicero
• Bread and circuses
  • Panem et Circenses: Juvenal
• by Jove
  • The Phrase ‘by Jove’ means ‘by Jupiter’, the Chief Roman God. The Romans would swear an oath in the Law Courts by starting ‘By Jove…’
• “Courage stands halfway between cowardice and rashness, one of which is a lack of, the other an excess of courage.”
  • Plutarch
• Crossing the Rubicon
  • When Julius Caesar passed the point of no return.
• Dedicate your life to truth
  • Vitam Impendere Vero: Juvenal
• Fortune favours the brave
  • Audentis fortuna iuvat: Virgil
• Fortune smiles upon our first effort
  • Aspirat primo fortuna labori: Virgil
• I came, I saw, I conquered
  • Veni, Vidi, Vici: Julius Caesar
• I shall either find or make a way
  • Hannibal. This was his response when his generals told him it was impossible to cross the alps with elephants.
• If you want Peace, prepare for War
  • Si vis Pacem, para Bellum: Vegetius.
• “It is better that a wise enemy should fear you, than that foolish friends should praise you.”
  • Quintus Fabius Maximus, (218 BCE) Livy, The War with Hannibal, Books XXI-XXX, ‘History of Rome from its foundation’.
• “Know how to listen, and you will learn even from those who talk badly.”
  • Plutarch
• Lasts longer than Bronze
  • Aere Perennius: Horace
• Leave all else to the Gods
  • Permitte Divis Cetera: Horace
• ‘Let food be thy medicine, and medicine be thy food.’
  • Hippocrates
• Let the buyer beware
  • Caveat emptor
• Let us live, since we must die
  • Vivamus, Moriendum Est: Seneca the Younger
• Love conquers all
  • Amor vincit Omnia: Virgil
• Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity
  • Seneca
• Make haste slowly
  • Festina Lente: Augustus
• More haste, less speed
  • Festina Lente: Augustus
• One night awaits everyone
  • Omnes Una Manet Nox: Horace
• Nero fiddled while Rome burned
  • This is a modern phrase based on the story by Dio Cassius
• Never despair!
  • Nil Desperandum: Horace
• No one is without fault
  • Nemo Sine Vitio Est: Seneca the Younger
• Now I know what love is!
  • Nunc scio quid sit amor: Virgil
• Pyrrhic victory
  • Plutarch
• Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's, and unto God the things which are God's:
  • From the New Testament, the Gospel of St. Mark, 12:17.
• Seize the Day!
  • Carpe Diem!: Horace
• “Silence at the proper time is wisdom, and better than any speech.”
  • Plutarch
• Skeleton at the feast
  • Plutarch
• Solid ground
  • Terra firma
• The beginning of all things are small
  • Omnium rerum principia parva sunt: Cicero
• The cause of fear is ignorance
  • Timendi causa est nescire: Seneca the Younger
• The Play is over, Applaud!
  • Acta est Fabula, Plaudite!: Augustus
• The die is cast
  • Alea jacta est: Julius Caesar
• The sinews of war are unlimited money
  • Pecunia Nervus Belli: Cicero Fifth Phillipic Chap V.
• They lived (meaning: “They are dead.”)
  • Vixere: Cicero commenting on the execution of the members of the Catiline Conspiracy.
• They make a desert and call it peace (a description of the Roman Empire)
  • Tacitus, Histories, Agricola.
• Things are not always what they seem
  • Phaedrus (15 BCE-50 CE) author of Fables
• Time flies
  • Tempus fugit: Virgil, ‘Georgics’ Book 3, line 284.
• “To find fault is easy, to do better may be harder.”
  • Plutarch
• “To make no mistakes is not in the power of man, but from their mistakes do the wise learn wisdom for the future”
  • Plutarch
• Truth hates delay
  • Veritas Odit Moras: Seneca the Younger
• Truth in Wine
  • In vino veritas: Pliny the Elder
• Two Caesars is one too many:
  • Augustus: His remark on the execution of Caesarion, the son of Julius Caesar and Queen Cleopatra VII who was a potential rival.
• We cannot all of us do everything
  • Non Omnia Possumus Omnes: Virgil
• We, who are about to die, salute you
  • Nos morituri te salutant!
• Were your ears burning?
  • Pliny the Elder wrote that people sensed they were being talked about in their absence by receiving a tingling in the ears. Natural History, Book XXVIII, Chap. V.
• What has been wrongly gained is wrongly lost
  • Male Parta Male Dilabuntur: Cicero
• Who will guard the guards?
  • Quis Custodiet Ipsos Custodes?: Juvenal
• Who, what, where, with what, why, how, when?
  • Quis, Quid, Ubi, Quibus Auxiliis, Cur, Quomodo, Quando: Quintilian
• Wise men learn from fools more than fools learn from wise men. Wise men avoid the mistakes of fools, but fools do not learn from the achievements of the wise.
  • Cato the Elder from ‘Life of Cato’ by Plutarch.
• Without which nothing
  • Sine qua non

Roman Expressions from later Sources

• All roads lead to Rome:
  • From the French Poet Alain de Lille (1175 CE).
• Rome wasn’t built in a day
  • Flanders (c. 1190 CE)
• Pax Romana
  • The term was coined by Edward Gibbon, in his History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. The Romans called it the ‘Pax Augusta’.
• What have the Romans ever done for us?
  • From the Movie, Life of Brian (1979) by Monty Python.
• When in Rome, do as the Romans do
  • A medieval phrase attributed to Ambrose (340-397 CE) Bishop of Milan.

Roman Expressions from William Shakespeare (c.1590-1616 CE)

• Beware the Ides of March: Julius Caesar, Act I, Scene II.
• Et tu, Brute?: Julius Caesar, Act III, Scene I.
• Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears!: Julius Caesar, Act III, Scene II.