Two thousand years ago , the masculine nonchalance and succinctness that we colligate with Clint Eastwood was evidently already jolly pop .
" Veni , vidi , vici " is , on the spectrum of victorious military pronouncements , decidedly on the pithy ending : " I came , I picture , I conquered . " The ancient Roman historiographer Appian attributed this affirmation toJulius Caesar , the powerful Roman statesman who used military force to elevate the Roman Republic ’s status to Empire . The swaggie and rodomontade of the quote has inspired everyone fromVictor Hugoto Jay Z , but was Caesar referring to a military victory or a Chinese buffet ?
The thing about Julius Caesar is he loved to bring home the bacon . behave into the elite Senatorial class , Caesar arise through the social rank of both the war machine and the Roman senate and served for a year as the regulator of Spain . He got two of his rich ally to bankroll his political campaign to go for consul — the highest elected official ofRome , a position so powerful it was only able-bodied to be held for one yr out of every 10 by one person . After serve a year as consul of Rome , he was made regulator of southern Gaul ( modern solar day France ) , where he spent eight long time conquering the rest of Gaul and Britain with his four freehanded U. S. Army , or " legion . "
He was finally called back to Rome and would plausibly have been bedevil in jail for surpass his authority as regulator of Gaul , but instead he adjudicate to invade Rome . The consul , Pompey ( coincidently one of the deep guys who had gotten him elect consul a decade in the beginning ) fled toEgyptand Julius Caesar diagnose himself both consul and dictator of Rome and take off after him . Pompey was assassinated by the Egyptians before Caesar could get to him , but while he was there he canoodle withCleopatra , the last pharaoh of ancient Egypt , avail her kill her brother / husband Ptolemy .
This is where the immortal words " Veni , vidi , vici " show up in the history books . On his way of life back to Rome from Egypt , Caesar stopped by to rein in Pharnaces , ruler of Cimmerian Bosporus in advanced - daylight Turkey , as he had been spend a penny land grab of his own . In the straightaway and on the face of it cursorily gain ground Battle of Zela , Caesar defeated Pharnaces and , according to Appian , get off a report back to Rome that he arrive , possibly did a little rubber-necking and then totally annihilated the competition easily , promptly and blindfold . Of course , this is just one historian ’s account statement — others claimthe Battle of Zela was n’t so easily deliver the goods , but " I come , I discover , I appropriate " sure does make Caesar go cool .
Julius Caesar became both dictator and consul of Rome and its holdings — at the time , dictators were sometimes appointed in time of military crisis with a term limit of six month or less , but Caesar named himself authoritarian for life However , he used that baron to reclaim the Roman governing — he put up state pension to retired military , strengthened the Senate , revised the Roman calendar and restructured debt .
But Caesar ’s sort of dream and effortless alpha wolf masculinity did n’t go over well with some member of the Senate , so after five years of dictatorship , he was stabbed 27 times on the floor of the chamber .
