sic semper tyrannis
Thus always to tyrants — a slogan claiming that oppressors get what is coming to them.
“The banner over the crowd read "Sic semper tyrannis".”
“When the dictator's statue came down, someone had already painted sic semper tyrannis across the empty plinth.”
“The historian traced the slogan from the Roman Republic to the Virginia state seal and finally to Ford's Theatre, arguing that sic semper tyrannis has always flattered the person shouting it more than it has described the person it names.”
disputed origin
Sic semper tyrannis means "thus always to tyrants" — that is, this is how tyrants always end. Tradition puts the words in Brutus's mouth at Caesar's assassination, though no Roman source records them, and the Latin is almost certainly later. What is Roman is the sentiment: the Republic's founding story was the expulsion of a king, and killing a would-be one was framed as a civic duty rather than a murder.
The phrase was revived by republicans who read their Livy. Virginia adopted it as a state motto in 1776, with a seal showing Virtue standing over a fallen tyrant.
Its most notorious outing came in 1865, when John Wilkes Booth shouted it after shooting Abraham Lincoln — a use that sits over the phrase permanently, and a demonstration of how easily "tyrant" is applied by whoever is holding the weapon.
One general, one river, and the end of the Republic.
- 01
cross the Rubicon (idiom)
To take a step you cannot undo.
The Rubicon, January 49 BC.
- 02
the die is cast (idiom)
The decision is made and there is no going back.
What he said at the crossing.
- 03
veni, vidi, vici (idiom)
I came, I saw, I conquered — used of a job done fast and without difficulty.
Zela, 47 BC — the war report.
- 04
Caesar's wife must be above suspicion (idiom)
People in public positions must avoid even the appearance of wrongdoing, guilty or not.
The Bona Dea scandal, 62 BC.
- 05
beware the Ides of March (idiom)
A warning that a specific day, or a trusted circle, holds danger.
Spurinna's warning, 15 March 44 BC.
- 06
Et tu, Brute? (idiom)
Said when the person betraying you is the last one you expected.
Brutus, in the Senate.
Last updated August 3, 2026