quot servi, tot hostes
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Latin[edit]
Etymology[edit]
Literally, “as many slaves, so many enemies”. Most likely a simplification of earlier proverbs such as totidem hostēs esse quot servōs (“to be just as many enemies as slaves”) in Seneca the Younger.[1][2]
Pronunciation[edit]
- (Classical) IPA(key): /kʷot ˈser.u̯iː tot ˈhos.teːs/, [kʷɔt̪ ˈs̠ɛru̯iː t̪ɔt̪ ˈhɔs̠t̪eːs̠]
- (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA(key): /kwot ˈser.vi tot ˈos.tes/, [kwɔt̪ ˈsɛrvi t̪ɔt̪ ˈɔst̪es]
Phrase[edit]
- every slave is an enemy
- 1880, Sextus Pompeius Festus, edited by Karl Otfried Müller, Sexti Pompei Festi De verborum significatione quae supersunt cum Pauli Epitome, Leipzig, page 261/1:
- Quot servi, tot hostes, in proverbio est, de quo Sinnius Capito existomat errorem hominibus intervenisse praepostere plurimis enuntiantibus.
- "As many slaves, so many enemies," is in a proverb, of which Sinnius Capito reckons an error by humans has intervened irregularly through many tellings.
References[edit]
- ^ Seneca the Younger (c. 65 CE) Epistulae morales ad Lucilium[1] (in Latin), volume V, XLVII, §5: “Deinde eiusdem arrogantiae proverbium iactatur, totidem hostes esse quot servos: non habemus illos hostes sed facimus. ― Then, the saying which shows the same kind of high-handed behaviour is often repeated: There are as many enemies as there are slaves; we do not simply have those enemies, but we make them into enemies.”
- ^ 249 in Ziltener, Werner, and Christian Hostettler. Lexikon der Sprichwörter des romanisch-germanischen Mittelalters. Ed. Samuel Singer. Vol. 1. Walter de Gruyter, 1995.