Chapters
Ennius (Quintus Ennius) lived from 239-169 BCE. He was a Roman poet, considered the father of Roman poetry. Only fragments of his works have survived to our times.
- “Good deeds misplaced, methinks, are evil deeds”
- latin: [Bene facta male locata male facta arbitror]
- description: quoting Ennius.
- source: Cicero, De Officiis
- “The victor is not victorious if the vanquished does not consider himself so”
- latin: [Qui vincit non est victor nisi victus fatetur]
- source: Ennius, Annales, XXXI, 493
- “For to fight out a quarrel by force – it is a thing of boorish boars beloved”
- source: Ennius, Annales
- “A man who, to one astray, graciously points out the way does it as one lights a torch from his own torch. No less light does it shed for him when he has lit the other’s”
- “All mortals desire themselves to be praised”
- latin: [Omnes mortales sese laudarier optant]
- source: Augustine of Hippo, De Trinitate, XIII, III
- “No one regards what is before his feet; we all gaze at the stars”
- latin: [Quod est ante pedes nemo spectat, caeli scrutantur plagas]
- source: Cicero, De Divinatione, II, XIII
- “The idle mind knows not what it wants”
- latin: [Otioso in otio animus nescit quid velit]
- source: Aulus Gellius, Noctes Atticae, XIX, X
- “The mind wanders unsure, except in that life is lived”
- latin: [Incerte errat animus; praeterpropter vitam vivitur]
- source: Aulus Gellius, Noctes Atticae, XIX, X
- “Fortune is given to brave men”
- latin: [Fortibus est fortuna viris data]
- source: Macrobius, Saturnalia VI, I
- “Not chaffering war but waging war, not with gold but with iron—thus let us of both sides make trial for our lives”
- latin: [Nec cauponantes bellum sed belligerantes; ferro non auro vitam cernamus utrique]
- source: Cicero, De Officiis, I, XII
- “Where the Gauls stealthily, at the time of night when sleep falls on men, attacked the high citadel and of a sudden stained with blood walls and watchers”
- latin: [Qua Galli furtim noctu summa arcis adorti, moenia concubia vigilesque repente cruentant]
- source: Macrobius, Saturnalia I, IV
- “Whom none could overcome with iron or gold”
- latin: [Quem nemo ferro potuit superare nec auro]
- source: Cicero, De Re Publica, III, IV
- “Neither you nor any man alive shall do this unpunished: no, you shall give recompense to me with your life-blood”
- latin: [Nec pol homo quisquam faciet inpune animatus,hoc nec tu; nam mi calido dabis sanguine poenas]
- source: Macrobius, Saturnalia VI, I
- “And earth who herself bestowed the body takes it back and wastes not a whit”
- latin: [Terram corpus quae dederit, ipsam, capere neque dispendi facere hilum]
- source: Varro, De Lingua Latina V
- “Open your eyelids, will you all, and let your brains leave sleep behind”
- latin: [Pandite sultis genas et corde relinquite somnum]
- source: Festus, De verborum significatione
- “No sooner said than done—so acts your man of worth”
- latin: [Dictum factumque facit frux]
- source: Priscianus, Ars Prisciani, VI
- “The Roman state survives by its ancient customs and its manhood”
- latin: [Moribus antiquis res stat Romana virisque]
- source: Ennius, Annals, V
- “One man, by delaying, restored the state to us. He valued safety more than mob’s applause; Hence now his glory more resplendent grows”
- latin: [Unus homo nobis cunctando restituit rem. Noenum rumores ponebat ante salutem; Ergo plusque magisque viri nunc gloria claret]
- source: Cicero, De Senectute, IV
- “The ape, vilest of beasts, how like to us!”
- latin: [Simia quam similis turpissima bestia nobis!]
- source: Cicero, Natura Deorum, I, XXXV
- “As a strong horse that has often won on the last lap at Olympia is now resting, tired out by old age”
- latin: [Sicut fortis equus, spatio qui saepe supremo; Vicit Olympia, nunc senio confectus quiescit]
- description: Ennius refers here to himself and his work Annals, sensing its ending.
- source: Cicero, De Senectute, V
- “Whom they fear, they hate. And whom one hates, one hopes to see him dead”
- latin: [Quem metuunt oderunt; quem quisque odit, perisse expetit]
- source: Cicero, De Officiis, II, 23
- “Let no one pay me honor with tears, nor celebrate my funeral rites with weeping. Why? I fly, living, through the mouths of men”
- latin: [Nemo me lacrumis decoret neque funera fletu faxit. Cur? volito vivos per ora virum]
- source: Cicero, Tusculanae Disputationes, I, XV
