Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Veni, vidi, vici

"Veni, vidi, vici" (Ecclesiastical Latin:) (I came, I saw, I conquered.) is a famous Latin sentence reportedly written by Julius Caesar in 47 BC as a comment on his short war with Pharnaces II of Pontus.[1]

Its form (a three-part sentence or motto) is classed as a tricolon and a hendiatris. The sentence appears in Plutarch and Suetonius (Plut. Caes. 50, Suet. Iul. 37.). Plutarch reports that he "gave Amantius, a friend of his at Rome, an account of this action", whereas Suetonius says "In his Pontic triumph he displayed among the show-pieces of the procession an inscription of but three words, "I came, I saw, I conquered".

"Veni", "vidi", and "vici" are first person perfect tense forms of the three Latin verbs "venio", "video", and "vinco".

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

1 comment:

ATLAS said...

I prefer Vidi, Vici, Veni...