To many people the phrase “Veni vidi vici” is known, the translation of which sounds like “Came, saw, won”. This saying, especially in Russian, is so popular and so often used even in everyday life that many people have a question about where it came from and to whom it belongs.
“Latin is out of fashion now, but if you tell the truth ...”
In the time of A. S. Pushkin, Latin was only “out of fashion”, although her knowledge characterized a person only from the best side. But even then, she had long since lost the status of spoken language. But even if we omit its fundamental role in medicine, especially in pharmacology, we can state that Latin quotes and expressions will live for centuries. Jurisprudence is also quite difficult to do without the help of Latin, whose name was given to the region in Italy - Latia, whose center is Rome. Sayings in Latin are not only decoration of the language, sometimes only these phrases can express the essence of the issue. Collections of Latin winged expressions exist and are in demand. Some phrases from them are familiar even to people far from Latin and science in general.
Pearl phrase
First of all, such quotes include the greeting “Ave!” and the sacramental "Veni, vidi, vici". Dictionaries and reference books are based on the testimonies of Greek and Roman philosophers and historians, such as “The sayings of kings and generals” by Plutarch, from where this phrase was taken. The high culture of the ancient Mediterranean - the "cradle of civilization" - is covered in beautiful legends. The famous kings and commanders who were smart and educated are credited with bright sayings, and if they are not long and beautiful, then capacious, short and accurate.
The phrase "Veni vidi vici" belongs to
Guy Julius Caesar (100-44 BC). She meets all the standards of historical winged phrases - elegant in style and appearance, smart and, most importantly, she was fully consistent with the events of that time.
Events Preceding the Phrase
Caesar was not having the best time of his career. The huge, well-armed army of Farnak, the son of the Pontic king Mithridates defeated by the Roman dictator, landed in Asia Minor and began to win one victory after another. The son avenged his father. Julius Caesar could not return to Italy, where urgent matters called him, leaving everything as it is. And in 47, at the end of summer, under the city of Zele, troops led by a brilliant commander completely defeated Farnak's army. The victory was easy and quick, Caesar returned to Rome a triumphant. He immortalized this brilliant event by a letter to his friend Amintius, where this phrase was written.
The brilliant dictum of a brilliant man
“Veni vidi vici” is not boasting, it is a statement of an easy, brilliant and very significant victory - “I came, I saw, I won.” Naturally, the phrase scattered instantly, and, according to the historian Suetonius, the author of the work “The Life of the Twelve Caesars”, it was it that was inscribed on the banner that was carried before Guy Julius when his victorious army entered Rome. Mountains of literature have been written about Caesar; its popularity is not decreasing, but increasing due to cinema and salad. He is quoted because the phrase “Veni vidi vici” is not the only expression in history. But it was she who became the exact symbolic name of everything that was done on time, brilliantly, without a hitch. And, of course, her, so beautiful, is used in the form of slogans on the emblems of various companies, the most famous of which is the tobacco company Philip Moris. The words adorn the Marlboro cigarette packs.
Julius Caesar was the author of so many phrases - smart, prophetic, cynical. He said that it was impossible to offend guests, that each person was the smith of his fate, that he, Caesar, didn’t care if they would hate him, most importantly, to be afraid. Dozens of sayings were left to posterity, but “Came, saw, won” - a saying that announces itself. I read it, and it won you over, and you understand that no one was able to declare victory more precisely, smarter, more elegantly.