- Ab urbe condita
- Livy: ‘From the city having been founded’
- Ad triarios redisse
- ‘to fall back on the Triarii’ meaning ‘to be in desperate straits’.
- Alea jacta est
- Julius Caesar: ‘The die has been cast’, quoted as he ‘Crossed the Rubicon’ in 49 BCE.
- Alpha et Omega
- ‘The First and the Last’, a description of Christ by early Roman Commentators.
- Amor vincit Omnia
- Virgil: ‘Love conquers all things’
- Animula vagula blandula, Hospes comesque corporis
- Meaning: ‘Charming, hesitating, passing Spirit, friend and fellow of this body.’
- Hadrian’s Poem, from the Historia Augusta.
- Ante bellum
- ‘Before the war’
- Aspirat primo fortuna labori
- Virgil: ‘Fortune smiles upon our first effort’
- Audentis fortuna iuvat
- Virgil: ‘Fortune favors the brave’
- Aut viam inveniam aut facium
- Hannibal: ‘I shall either find a way, or make one.’
- Ave atque vale
- Catullus: ‘Hail and farewell.’
- Ave Imperator, morituri te salutant!
- Suetonius: (The 12 Caesars) ‘Hail Emperor, those who are about to die salute you!
- Carpe Diem!
- Horace: ‘Seize the day’
- Carthago delenda est
- Cato the Elder: ‘Carthage must be destroyed’
- Caveat emptor
- ‘Let the buyer beware’
- Cogito ergo sum
- Descartes: (1596-1650 CE) ‘I think therefore I am’
- Credula res amor est
- Ovid: ‘In love you’ll believe anything’
- Cum grano salis
- Pliny the Elder: ‘With a grain of salt’
- De nihilo nihil
- Lucretius: ‘Nothing comes from nothing’
- Deo Optimo Maximo (D O M)
- Meaning ‘To the Greatest and Best God’ referring to Jupiter in the Roman Pantheon of Gods.
- It was originally written as ‘Iovi Optimo Maximo’ and abbreviated to ‘I.O.M.’
- In the Renaissance, it was abbreviated to ‘D.O.M.’ and was written on the sides of Christian Churches.
- Dulce et Decorum est pro patria mori
- Horace: (Odes III.2.13) ‘It is sweet and right to die for the Homeland’
- Dum vita est, spes est
- Cicero: ‘While there is life, there is hope’
- Errare humanum est
- Seneca the Younger: ‘To err is human’
- Ex Nihilo
- ‘Out of nothing’
- Ex Nihilo nihil fit
- Lucretius: ‘Nothing comes from nothing’
- Hannibal ante Portus
- Cicero: ‘Hannibal before the gates’
- Imperium Romanum
- ‘Roman Empire’
- Incidit in scyllam cupiens vitare charybdim
- Between Scylla and Charybdis meaning Between a rock and a hard place.
- In Homer‘s Odyssey Book XII, Odysseus has to sail a narrow strait between the two monsters, Scylla and Charybdis, and is advised to sail closer to Scylla and lose only part of his crew, rather than sail closer to Charybdis and lose the whole vessel.
- In hoc signo vinces
- Constantine I: ‘In this sign you will conquer’ before he defeated Maxentius at the Battle of Milvian Bridge in 312 CE, after he had seen a Chi Rho sign in the sky. Eusebius, De Vita Imperatoris Constantini.
- In flagrante delicto
- ‘Caught red handed’
- In vino veritas
- Pliny the Elder: ‘In wine there is truth’
- In virtute sunt multi ascensus
- Cicero: ‘In excellence there are many degrees’
- Ipsa scientia potesta est
- Francis Bacon (1909-1992 CE): ‘Knowledge itself is power’
- Factum est illud, fieri infectum non potest
- Plautus: ‘Done is done, it cannot be made undone’
- Fama crescit eundo
- Virgil: ‘The rumor grows as it goes’
- Labor omnia vincit
- ‘Hard work conquers all’
- Lapsus linguae
- ‘A slip of the tongue’
- Libenter homines id quod volunt credunt
- Julius Caesar: ‘Men gladly believe that which they wish for’
- Mare Nostrum
- ‘Our Sea’ meaning The Mediterranean.
- Mens sana in corpore sano
- Juvenal: ‘A Healthy mind in a healthy body’
- Modus omnibus in rebus
- Moderation in all things by the Roman Playwright Plautus (254-184 BCE).
- Mutatis Mutandis
- ‘After changing what we needed to be changed’ (Medieval Latin)
- Nervos belli, pecuniam infinitam
- Cicero: Fifth Phillipic, Chapter 5: The sinews of war are unlimited money
- Nos morituri te salutant!
- ‘We, who are about to die, salute you’
- Nos Sumus Romani qui fuimus ante Rudian
- Ennius, the Poet (184 BCE): ‘We are Romans who were once Rudians’
- Nunc est bibendum
- Horace: ‘Now is the time to drink’
- Nunc scio quid sit amor
- Virgil: ‘Now I know what love is!’
- O tempora O mores
- Cicero: ‘Oh what times! Oh what customs!’
- Cicero’s speech during the Catiline Conspiracy.
- Omnium rerum principia parva sunt
- Cicero: ‘The beginnings of all things are small’
- Opus Dei
- ‘The work of God’
- Panem et Circenses
- Juvenal: ‘Bread and Circuses’, his sarcastic phrase about the motives of the Roman population.
- Pecunia non olet
- Vespasian: ‘Money does not smell’
- Prandeo, poto, cano, ludo, lavo, caeno, quiesco
- Avienus: ‘I Dine, drink, sing, play, bathe, sup, rest’
- This was his response to being asked what he did in the country when not acting as Consul.
- Primus inter pares
- ‘First among equals’, one of the Titles of The Roman Emperor.
- Qualis artifex pereo
- Quid pro quo
- ‘This for that’
- Quis Custodiet Ipsos Custodes?
- Juvenal: ‘Who will guard the guardians?’ Satire 6, 346-348.
- Quo Vadis?
- St. Peter to Jesus: ‘Whither goest Thou?’
- Romam vado iterum crucifigi. ‘I am going to Rome to be crucified again’.
- St. Peter’s question to Jesus as he fled crucifixion in Rome, and Jesus’ reply, causing St. Peter to turn back and become a martyr, from the Acts of St. Peter.
- Quod erat demonstrandum QED
- Meaning: ‘That which had to be demonstrated’
- Roma locuta est. Causa finita est
- ‘Rome has spoken. The cause is finished’. Attributed to St. Augustine (417 CE).
- Romanos, rerum dominos, gentemque togatam
- Virgil: ‘Romans, lords of the world, the toga-wearing race’
- Sanctum sanctorum
- ‘Holy of Holies’
- SPQR - Senatus Populusque Romanus
- ‘The Senate and the People of Rome’
- Si vis Pacem, para Bellum
- ‘If you want Peace, prepare for War’ Vegetius
- Sic transit gloria mundi
- ‘Thus passes the glory of the world’
- Sine qua non
- ‘Without which nothing’
- Tempora mutantur, et nos mutamur in illis
- Ovid: ‘Times are changing and we are changing with them’
- Tempus fugit
- ‘Time flies’ from Virgil, ‘Georgics’ Book 3, line 284.
- Terra firma
- ‘Solid ground’
- Timendi causa est nescire
- Seneca: ‘Ignorance is the cause of fear’
- Urbem venalem et mature perituram, si emptorem invenerit
- Urbi et orbi
- ‘To the city and to the circle’ meaning ‘To Rome and to the world’
- Urbs Aeterna
- Ut sementem feceris, its metes
- Cicero: ‘As you sow, so you shall reap’
- Vade Mecum
- ‘Go with me’
- Vae, puto deus fio
- Vespasian: ‘Oh! I think I’m becoming a God!’ Vespasian’s dying words.
- Velocius quam asparagi coquantur
- ‘Velocius quam asparagi conquantur’ meaning ‘Faster than cooking asparagus’. from Suetonius (The Lives of the Twelve Caesars, Book 2)
- Augustus would urge his subordinates to ‘hurry up’, by using this phrase. Augustus organised Asparagus Fleets to collect Asparagus from around the Empire and bring it to Rome.
- Veni, Vidi, Vici
- Julius Caesar: ‘I came, I saw, I conquered’ Julius Caesar’s comment on his war with Pharnaces II of Pontus, from Suetonius July 37 BCE.
- Viciste, Galilaee
- Julian: ‘You have conquered, Galilean’. Julian the Apostate’s supposed dying words after attempting to restore Paganism during his Rule, conceding that Christianity had won.
- Vox Populi
- ‘Voice of the People’
Latin Phrases listed in English