What does “Ave Caesar” mean? Before giving an answer to this question, we should first consider the short token that is not clear to everyone. Today it is used in youth slang as a greeting. About what “Ave Caesar” means, and about another well-known phraseological unit, will be described in the article.
Imperative mood
What does the word "ave" mean? In Latin, it is written as ave. This is the imperative mood of the Latin verb avete, which means to be in a good mood, well-being, to be in good health, to live. That is, "ave" is translated as "hello." It is formed from another verb - habere, meaning "to have." The phrase salut habere, the literal meaning of which is “to have health”, was subsequently divided into two shorter greetings - “salute” and “ave”.
According to tranquill
What does “Ave Caesar” mean? This winged Latin expression is found in the ancient Roman historian of the I-II centuries. Guy Suetonius Tranquilla, describing the life of rulers. According to his testimony, the gladiators who went to battle in the arena welcomed the emperor Claudius, who ruled in the 1st century. Moreover, the translation of its full version looks like: “Be glorious, Caesar, we who are going to death, salute you.”
However, some sources report that the ancient Romans addressed the word “ave” to each other in everyday life, thereby wishing each other happiness and health. This they did when they met and when they parted. They had an expression: "Live happily with a calm spirit."
Roman salute
Considering what “Ave Caesar” means, it should be said about what the Roman salutation looked like. It was a salute, which was a gesture that looked like an outstretched arm with straight fingers and a palm. According to one version, the hand was raised upward at an angle, according to another, it was extended parallel to the ground.
Meanwhile, the Roman texts do not contain an exact description of such a greeting; its images are rather arbitrary. The widespread idea of him is based not on ancient sources directly examined, but on one of the paintings of Jacques-Louis David dating back to 1784. It is called the “Oath of Horatius”.
According to the Italian historian Guido Clemente, in ancient Rome, fireworks belonged to the privileges of military leaders and emperors, who welcomed the crowd, but was not generally accepted.
What does “Ave Maria” mean?
These are the words with which the Catholic prayer begins, addressed to the Mother of God. Its analogue in the Orthodox branch of Christianity is the Song of the Blessed Virgin Mary. It begins with a phrase such as: “Virgin Mary, Hail,” and is taken from one of the Gospel texts. She is also called the angel’s greeting. This is due to the fact that her first phrase is nothing more than a greeting said to Mary by the archangel Gabriel at the time of the Annunciation. Then he informed Mary that Jesus would be born of her flesh.
Catholics began to use this prayer often, starting from the second half of the 11th century. It is seen as tantamount to our Father’s prayer. In the XIII century. Pope Urban IV added the final phrase to her: “Jesus Christ. Amen".
In the XIV century. Pope John XXII issued an instruction that each of the Catholics must pronounce “Ave, Mary” three times a day. This is morning, afternoon and evening time, that is, the hours when the bell calls for it. It is read, sorting out small balls on a rosary, the name of which corresponds to the name of a prayer, while large ones move when reading “Our Father”. According to the beliefs of Catholics, the Prayer addressed to the Mother of God, read 160 times, has great power.
In 1495, the Italian monk reformer Girolamo Savonarola first published an addendum to it, at the end of the 16th century. officially approved by the Council of Trent.