The phrase is attributed in Plutarch's Life of Caesar and Suetonius's Lives of the Twelve Caesars: Julius. Plutarch writes that Caesar used it in a report to Amantius, a friend of his in Rome.[3] Suetonius states that Caesar displayed the three words as an inscription during his Pontic triumph.[4]
The sentence has also been used in music, including several well-known works over the years. The opening of Handel's 1724 opera Giulio Cesare contains the line: Curio, Cesare venne, e vide e vinse ("Curio, Caesar came, saw and conquered"). In popular music, it is expected that the audience will know the original quotation, so modified versions are frequently used. This can range from slight changes in perspective, as in the title song in the musical Mame (You came, you saw, you conquered) or the 1936 song These Foolish Things (Remind Me of You) (You came, you saw, you conquered me) to wordplay, such as in the album title Veni Vidi Vicious by Swedish band The Hives or Pitbull's song "Fireball" (I saw, I came, I conquered Or should I say, I saw I conquered, I came) or Ja Rule's debut album Venni Vetti Vecci.
The phrase appears in a variety of cultural contexts, such as this Philip Morris logo, from a pack of Marlboro cigarettes.
The phrase has also been heavily referenced in literature and film. The title of French poet Victor Hugo's Veni, vidi, vixi ("I came, I saw, I lived"), written after the death of his daughter Leopoldine at age 19 in 1843, uses the allusion with its first verse: J'ai bien assez vécu...("I have lived quite long enough..."). Peter Venkman, one of the protagonists in the 1984 film Ghostbusters, delivers a humorous variation: "We came. We saw. We kicked its ass!" This line was among the 400 nominees for the AFI's 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes.[8]
Grammar
Latin
Veni, vidi, and vici are first person singular perfectindicativeactive forms of the Latin verbs venire, videre, and vincere, which mean "to come", "to see", and "to conquer", respectively. The sentence's form is classed as a tricolon and a hendiatris.
English
The English phrase "I came, I saw, I conquered" employs what is known as a comma splice. Grammarians generally agree that using a comma to join two independent clauses should be done sparingly.[9] Sometimes, the comma splice is avoided by using a semicolon instead: "I came; I saw; I conquered".[10] Alternatively, "I came, I saw, I conquered" can be justified as an example of asyndeton, where the lack of the expected conjunction emphasizes the suddenness and swiftness of Caesar's victories. Similarly, this sentence also serves as a famous example of an alliteration due to the repeated use of its first consonant.
^Shaw, Lucas (2011-10-21). "Hillary Clinton on Gaddafi: "We Came, We Saw, He Died" (Video)". TheWrap. Retrieved 2024-11-14. In the second of two videos showing her reaction to different stages of reports, in this case the confirmation of Gaddafi's death, Clinton proclaims "We came, we saw, he died." For those who have not recently brushed up on theirr Roman history, that is a reference to Julius Caesar's famous line "veni, vidi, vici," which means "I came, I saw, I conquered."
