Veni, Vidi, Vici : Conquer Your Enemies, Impress Your Friends with Everyday Latin

322 Pages·1995·10.71 MB·English, Latin

by  Eugene Ehrlich

Conquer Your Enemies,
Impress Your Friends with
Everyday Latin
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EUGENE EHRLICH

VENI, VIDI, VICI
veni, vidi, vici. Copyright © 1995 by Eugene Ehrlich. All rights
reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No pan of this
book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever with¬
out written permission except in the case of brief quotations embod¬
ied in critical articles and reviews. For information address Harper-
Collins Publishers, 10 East 53rd Street, New York, N.Y. 10022.
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a quiliVharperresource edition published in 2001.
Designed by Alma Orenstein
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Ehrlich, Eugene H.
Veni vidi vici : conquer your enemies, impress your friends with
everyday Latin / Eugene Ehrlich,
p. cm.
“A Hudson Group book."
Includes index.
ISBN 0-06-273365-6
1. English language—Foreign words and phrases—Latin—
Dictionaries. 2. Proverbs, Latin—Translations into English.
3. Maxims, Latin—Translations into English. 4. Latin language—
Terms and phrases. I. Title.
PE1582.L3E38 1995
422’.471—dc20 94-42354
06 05 04 RRD 11 12 13 14 15 16
To Sam, Mickey, Hazel, Rebecca, Margie,
Alice, Harry and Ruth
veni I came
vidi I saw
vici I conquered
—the best-known Latin sentence of
them all, freely rendered as “a piece of
cake,” reported by Plutarch to have
been uttered by Julius Caesar by way
of reporting his victory in 47 B.c. over
Pharnaces, king of Pontus.
Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Preface xi
Pronunciation Notes xiii
Dramatis Personae xvii
Veni, Vidi, Vici. . . 1
English Index 267
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Acknowledgments
I wish particularly to thank my wife, Norma Ehrlich, for her
unstinting support over the years and for her excellent assis¬
tance in interpreting many of the Latin phrases presented in
this volume. Her fresh eye and keen insight helped me keep
serious problems down to a minimum.
Carol Cohen at HarperCollins, as usual over our many
years of association, showed enthusiasm for this book right
from the start and, with genuine and unsparing assistance
from Erica Spaberg, saw the book through to completion.
Finally, I wish to express my admiration and gratitude to
William F. Buckley, Jr., that vigorous stylist and promoter of
good diction, for his introduction to Amo, Amas, Amat and
More, wrhich caught the eye of so many readers.
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