Famous Latin Phrases, Checked
15 Sayings and Where They Really Come From

Latin phrases carry an air of authority because they sound old. Some are exactly as old as they sound; some are paraphrases; a few are much later than the people they are credited to. Here are fifteen, checked against the ancient texts. English after Latin or Greek is our translation unless a translator is named.

1. Veni, vidi, vici — “I came, I saw, I conquered”

True that it belongs to Julius Caesar and his quick victory at Zela, but two ancient writers report it differently. Suetonius says that in his Pontic triumph Caesar “displayed among the show-pieces of the procession an inscription of but three words, ‘I came, I saw, I conquered,’” (Rolfe’s translation), “not indicating the events of the war, as the others did, but the speed with which it was finished.” Plutarch says it was a letter: “to one of his friends at Rome, Amantius, Caesar wrote three words”. Both are reports; neither quotes a document by Caesar that survives. Our longer look is at Veni, vidi, vici.

2. Alea iacta est — “The die is cast”

Partly true The ancient sources disagree on the words and the language, and neither has the familiar word order. Suetonius has Caesar at the Rubicon say “Iacta alea est” (“The die is cast”, in Rolfe’s translation). Plutarch tells it differently: Caesar was “calling out in Greek to the bystanders these words only, ‘Let the die be cast,’” (Perrin’s translation, Pompey 60), a phrase “with which men usually prelude their plunge into desperate and daring fortunes” (Caesar 32). The same Greek saying turns up in a comedy by Menander, quoted by Athenaeus, where it is about getting married: “δεδογμένον τὸ πρᾶγμ· ἀνερρίφθω κύβος”, “the thing’s decided; let the die be cast”.

3. Et tu, Brute? — “You too, Brutus?”

Myth as Caesar’s last words. The Latin line is Shakespeare’s, in Julius Caesar: “Et tu, Brute?—Then fall, Caesar!” The ancient writers give something else. Suetonius says Caesar died “uttering not a word, but merely a groan at the first stroke, though some have written that when Marcus Brutus rushed at him, he said in Greek, ‘You too, my child?’” (Rolfe). Cassius Dio prefers the silent version: “This is the truest account”. Plutarch has Caesar cry out in Latin at the first blow, “Accursed Casca, what does thou?” (Perrin), but gives him nothing to say to Brutus: “it is said by some writers” that, seeing Brutus’s dagger, “he pulled his toga down over his head and sank”. The Greek teknon means “child”; the “my” is the translator’s.

4. Carpe diem — “Seize the day”

True as Horace, Odes 1.11: “carpe diem, quam minimum credula postero”. The rest of the line changes the meaning; we cover it in Carpe diem.

5. Memento mori — “Remember you will die”

Partly true The idea reaches us through Tertullian, Apologeticus 33, where the emperor riding in a triumph is prompted from behind: “Respice post te! Hominem te memento!” — look behind you, remember you are a man. The two-word tag is not in Tertullian’s text. We go into the caveats in Older Than You Think.

6. Si vis pacem, para bellum — “If you want peace, prepare for war”

Partly true Vegetius says something very like it, in the preface to book 3 of his military handbook, but not in these words: “Igitur qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellum”, “so let whoever desires peace prepare for war”. His reason follows: “Nemo prouocare, nemo audet offendere quem intellegit superiorem esse, si pugnet”, “no one dares provoke or offend someone he knows would be the stronger in a fight”. The thought is older than Vegetius. Cicero said, in his seventh Philippic, “si pace frui volumus, bellum gerendum est”, “if we want to enjoy peace, we must wage war” (7.19), and Nepos has Epaminondas say “paritur pax bello”, “peace is produced by war” (Epaminondas 5.4). The short si vis pacem form does not occur in book 3, and we did not find where it first appears.

7. Cogito, ergo sum — “I think, therefore I am”

Partly true Descartes first published it in French, in the Discours de la méthode: “je pense, donc je suis”. The Gutenberg edition’s note dates the book: “Le Discours sur la méthode parut le 8 juin 1637.” The Latin “Ego cogito, ergo sum” is in his Principia philosophiae, which the same edition dates to 1644. His second Meditation, where the argument is most famous, says something slightly different: “Ego sum, ego existo”, “I am, I exist”. The words ergo sum do not occur in the Second Meditation.

8. Sic semper tyrannis — “Thus always to tyrants”

Unverified as something Brutus said. It is not in the three ancient accounts of Caesar’s death we checked (Suetonius, Plutarch, Cassius Dio). The earliest use we found is American. The Library of Virginia records that the design for the state’s great seal was proposed “on July 5, 1776”, and “the Latin Sic Semper Tyrannis (‘Thus Always to Tyrants’) chosen for the obverse, or front, of the seal became the state motto”. It is also what John Wilkes Booth shouted when he shot Abraham Lincoln at Ford’s Theatre on 14 April 1865. The sources place it differently. Booth’s own journal says: “I shouted Sic Semper before I fired.” The National Park Service says “numerous witnesses mention Booth brandishing the dagger while shouting ‘Sic Semper Tyrannis’ and running out to the back of the stage”, which is after the shot. The two need not contradict each other. In the sources we checked, only the shout on the stage is reported by others; the one before the shot rests on Booth’s own journal, in an entry the Park Service says was likely written between 17 and 20 April, while he was hiding.

9. Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? — “Who will guard the guards themselves?”

Partly true The line is Juvenal’s, from Satire 6, but it is about guarding a wife: “‘pone seram, cohibe.’ sed quis custodiet ipsos custodes? cauta est et ab illis incipit uxor”, “‘Put on a bolt, keep her in.’ But who will guard the guards themselves? The wife is cunning, and starts with them.” It is not about government. The text is also uncertain: the edition we used prints the line twice, once inside square brackets.

10. Panem et circenses — “Bread and circuses”

True as Juvenal, Satire 10.81. In G. G. Ramsay’s translation, the people “that once bestowed commands, consulships, legions and all else, now meddles no more and longs eagerly for just two things----Bread and Games!” The lead-in names the reason: “Now that no one buys our votes, the public has long since cast off its cares”. Ramsay renders circenses as “Games”. In our reading, Juvenal’s target is the people who stopped caring, not a ruler distracting them.

11. Mens sana in corpore sano — “A sound mind in a sound body”

Partly true The words are Juvenal’s, Satire 10.356, but they are the answer to what to pray for, at the end of a poem arguing that most of what people pray for ruins them. Ramsay: “Nevertheless that you may have something to pray for”, “you should pray for a sound mind in a sound body; for a stout heart that has no fear of death”. Then Juvenal turns it round: “What I commend to you, you can give to yourself”. Most of what it asks for is character, not fitness.

12. In vino veritas — “In wine, truth”

Partly true The idea is old; the three-word Latin is not in the Latin text we checked. Pliny the Elder, in a disapproving passage on drunkenness, says “volgoque veritas iam attributa vino est”, “and truth has now commonly been attributed to wine”, after warning that drinkers let out secrets and words that will get them killed. In Greek, Athenaeus reports the saying “οἶνος καὶ ἀλήθεια”, “wine and truth”, and Theocritus opens a poem with it: “οἶνος ὦ φίλε παῖ λέγεται καὶ ἀλάθεα”, “‘wine, dear boy,’ they say, ‘and truth’”. We did not find the earliest text with the exact Latin.

13. Per aspera ad astra — “Through hardships to the stars”

Unverified as a classical quotation. The phrase is not in the two classical passages it most resembles. In Seneca’s Hercules Furens, Megara says “Non est ad astra mollis e terris via”, “there is no soft road from the earth to the stars”, meaning Hercules’ path to becoming a god. In Vergil’s Aeneid 9, Apollo praises the boy Ascanius after his first kill in battle: “macte nova virtute, puer, sic itur ad astra”, “blessings on your new courage, boy; this is the way to the stars”. Neither text has per aspera, and we did not find where the four-word motto first appears.

14. Festina lente — “Make haste slowly”

Partly true Augustus is reported to have repeated it often, but in Greek, σπεῦδε βραδέως; Suetonius lists it among his “favourite sayings” (Rolfe), which does not make it his own coinage. Suetonius puts it in a passage on generalship: “He thought nothing less becoming in a well-trained leader than haste and rashness” (Rolfe). Aulus Gellius reports it at second hand: “we are told that he used to say in conversation, and write in his letters, σπεῦδε βραδέως, that is, ‘make haste slowly,’” and Rolfe’s note adds: “Hence the common festina lente”. The Latin form does not occur in either ancient text.

15. Errare humanum est — “To err is human”

Partly true The thought is classical; the exact tag is not in the two texts behind it. Cicero, Philippic 12.5: “Cuiusvis hominis est errare, nullius nisi insipientis in errore perseverare”, “any man can err; only a fool persists in error”. He was admitting that he and the Senate had been wrong. Augustine, in a sermon about the Donatists who would not admit they had been wrong, supplies the second half people now add: “Humanum fuit errare, diabolicum est per animositatem in errore manere”, “to err was human; to remain in error out of stubbornness is devilish”. Neither has the words errare humanum est or perseverare diabolicum, and we did not find the first text that does.

Our reading

Many of these tags were shortened on the way to us, and the cut part is often the point. Vegetius gave a reason for preparing for war, Juvenal’s sound mind was a prayer, Cicero’s “to err” came with an admission that he had erred. If a Latin phrase sounds like a slogan, look for the sentence it was cut from.

Sources

• Suetonius, Divus Iulius and Divus Augustus, Latin and trans. J. C. Rolfe; Plutarch, Caesar and Pompey, trans. Bernadotte Perrin; Cassius Dio, book 44, trans. Earnest Cary; Pliny the Elder, Natural History 14; Aulus Gellius, Attic Nights 10, trans. J. C. Rolfe — all on LacusCurtius (Bill Thayer).
• Juvenal, Satires 6 and 10; Horace, Odes 1; Vergil, Aeneid 9; Vegetius, Epitoma rei militaris 3; Cicero, Philippics 7 and 12; Nepos, Epaminondas; Tertullian, Apologeticus — The Latin Library. Juvenal 10, trans. G. G. Ramsay (1918), tertullian.org.
• Athenaeus, Deipnosophists 2.6 and 13.8; Theocritus, Idyll 29 — Scaife Viewer (Perseus).
• Seneca, Hercules Furens; Descartes, Principia philosophiae and Meditationes II — Latin Wikisource. Descartes, Discours de la méthode, Project Gutenberg #13846.
• Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, Project Gutenberg #1522.
• Augustine, Sermo 164, augustinus.it.
• Library of Virginia, “The Seal of Virginia”; Code of Virginia § 1-500; National Park Service, Ford’s Theatre, Booth’s journal and “The Assassin” FAQ.

Checked September 2026.

Related: Did They Really Say That? · Older Than You Think · Socrates, Plato and Aristotle Quotes, Checked