Idiom
veni, vidi, vici
Meaning
I came, I saw, I conquered — used of a job done fast and without difficulty.
Examples
“She walked into the interview and got the job. Veni, vidi, vici.”
“The new team took the market in a single quarter — veni, vidi, vici, as their director kept telling anyone who would listen.”
“The write-up read like a veni, vidi, vici dispatch, three clean sentences that carefully omitted the eighteen months of unglamorous preparation without which none of it would have worked.”
Examples
simple
“She walked into the interview and got the job. Veni, vidi, vici.”
contextual
“The new team took the market in a single quarter — veni, vidi, vici, as their director kept telling anyone who would listen.”
complex
“The write-up read like a veni, vidi, vici dispatch, three clean sentences that carefully omitted the eighteen months of unglamorous preparation without which none of it would have worked.”
Origin
In 47 BC Caesar met Pharnaces II of Pontus at Zela in what is now northern Turkey. The battle was over in about four hours. Caesar's report to Rome, according to Plutarch and Suetonius, was three words: veni, vidi, vici — I came, I saw, I conquered.
The line works in Latin in a way translation flattens. Three verbs, two syllables each, identical endings, no conjunctions: the speed of the sentence is the speed of the campaign. Suetonius says the words were carried on a placard in Caesar's triumph, which makes them one of the oldest surviving pieces of political sloganeering.
English uses the phrase for any task finished with conspicuous ease — and often with a raised eyebrow, since announcing your own victory in Latin is not a modest act.
Stories
Caesar & the Republic · See all Roman origin
One general, one river, and the end of the Republic.
cross the Rubicon — To take a step you cannot undo.
the die is cast — The decision is made and there is no going back.
Caesar's wife must be above suspicion — People in public positions must avoid even the appearance of wrongdoing, guilty or not.
beware the Ides of March — A warning that a specific day, or a trusted circle, holds danger.
Et tu, Brute? — Said when the person betraying you is the last one you expected.
sic semper tyrannis — Thus always to tyrants — a slogan claiming that oppressors get what is coming to them.
- Level
- C1 · Advanced
- Updated