What do you think?
Rate this book
Veni, Vidi, Vici: Conquer Your Enemies and Impress Your Friends with Everyday Latin
As entertaining as it is addictive and informative, VENI, VIDI, VICI has more than 1,000 Latin words and phrases to help you intelligently insult, compliment, or comment on anything at all. This book contains more than 1,000 Latin words and phrases, with a direct translation, actual meaning or English equivalent, and pronounciation for each one. With a new introduction and updated explanations, this timeless advice and wisdom is just as relevant today as it was in ancient Rome:
"Audacter calumniare semper aliquid haeret" - Slander boldly, something always sticks
"Corpus valet sed aegrotat crumena" - What good is health if you can′t afford to enjoy it?
"Militiae species amor est" - Love is a kind of military service
This updated edition includes revised explanations for each phrase, aimed at how modern readers would be able to use the Latin in conversation, along with updated pronunciation throughout the book, based on the most recent conventions for Latin pronunciation.
307 pages, Paperback
First published July 5, 1995
8 people are currently reading
126 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
November 11, 2015
This book is currently making me look smart as I attempt to write a murder mystery featuring Latin scholars set in Paris. WHAT? Yes, you read that right: I totally bought this book in order to fake my way through some Latin terms.
It's what we writers call "research."
Seriously, though, Eugene Ehrlich is kicking ass here. I am conquering enemies, impressing friends (or at least Twitter followers) and invading Rome AS WE SPEAK!
Maybe not that last one.
If you've ever wanted to start sprinkling your everyday conversations, or not-so-everyday writing with Latin phrases, this is the book to acquire. Stealthily. Maybe from a competing bookshop. Perhaps on sale. Or with a five-finger discount. (NOTE: I do not condone theft. I fully paid for this book, but not at Amazon.)
In conclusion, if you still don't know what "Veni, Vidi, Vici" means, then by all means grab a copy of this book and find out! Suddenly so many classical references will make WAY more sense to you. And those "Latin terms" they mention in Dangerous Liaisons will also become all the sweeter. Or literal. Or awesome.
P.S. I didn't actually *read* this book, as in from cover to cover. Instead, it's more of a reference book that I will dip into here and there. I'll scan through different pages, reading a few at a time, or just hit the index in search of a specific phrase that I want to use in Latin, and then find the closest approximation. If you're in any way in need of random Latin phrases, you would do the same.
It's what we writers call "research."
Seriously, though, Eugene Ehrlich is kicking ass here. I am conquering enemies, impressing friends (or at least Twitter followers) and invading Rome AS WE SPEAK!
Maybe not that last one.
If you've ever wanted to start sprinkling your everyday conversations, or not-so-everyday writing with Latin phrases, this is the book to acquire. Stealthily. Maybe from a competing bookshop. Perhaps on sale. Or with a five-finger discount. (NOTE: I do not condone theft. I fully paid for this book, but not at Amazon.)
In conclusion, if you still don't know what "Veni, Vidi, Vici" means, then by all means grab a copy of this book and find out! Suddenly so many classical references will make WAY more sense to you. And those "Latin terms" they mention in Dangerous Liaisons will also become all the sweeter. Or literal. Or awesome.
P.S. I didn't actually *read* this book, as in from cover to cover. Instead, it's more of a reference book that I will dip into here and there. I'll scan through different pages, reading a few at a time, or just hit the index in search of a specific phrase that I want to use in Latin, and then find the closest approximation. If you're in any way in need of random Latin phrases, you would do the same.
February 16, 2017
I took my time reading this book and enjoyed it hugely, especially since it coincided with finishing the last lessons of Wheelock's Latin. I parsed every single phrase, just as I did for the previous book, Amo, Amas, Amat. In the process I discovered a truly wonderful tool for Latin study: Wiktionary. They include pretty much every form of every word you're likely to run into in Latin, they tell you the declension/tense/voice/aspect/person/number/gender and just about anything else you need to know about it syntactically, then give a link to the main entry, e.g. the first person singular present indicative of the verb (e.g. amo, ducto) or the singular nominative form of nouns and adjectives. And the etymologies are great - they will help you make better sense of both Latin and English. Wiktionary is SO much more helpful than an ordinary paper dictionary, since it's often hard to guess the base forms, and much faster - I kept an iPad open as I worked through the book and checked every form I wasn't sure of. This process really helped me to slowly learn how to e.g. recognize ablatives right off, even without length marks over the vowels, and sort out some of the confusion I've had with the forms of vis vs. vir, with aurem vs. aurum and other forms that look a bit alike at first glance. One thing I especially like is that Ehrlich gives both an idiomatic and a literal translation for most of the phrases - one is useful in producing a good translation, the other for sorting out the grammar of every word.
Both books were especially relevant to the times we're living in due to the many descriptions of the use and abuse of power, such as: Seditio civium hostium est occasio. ('Civil discord gives the enemy an opportunity.'); Risum teneatis, amici? ('Could you help laughing, my friends?' Or in the vernacular, 'Can this guy be for real?'); Rex regnat sed non gubernat. ('The king reigns but does not govern.'); Quam parva sapientia mundus regitur! ('With how little wisdom the world is governed!'); and Quod volumus, facile credimus. ('We readily believe what we wish to believe.'). I shared some of these over Facebook and got positive feedback on them from a number of fb friends.
In short, if you are learning or would like to go back to Latin, I highly recommend both books. I hope you have half as much fun with them as I've had!
Both books were especially relevant to the times we're living in due to the many descriptions of the use and abuse of power, such as: Seditio civium hostium est occasio. ('Civil discord gives the enemy an opportunity.'); Risum teneatis, amici? ('Could you help laughing, my friends?' Or in the vernacular, 'Can this guy be for real?'); Rex regnat sed non gubernat. ('The king reigns but does not govern.'); Quam parva sapientia mundus regitur! ('With how little wisdom the world is governed!'); and Quod volumus, facile credimus. ('We readily believe what we wish to believe.'). I shared some of these over Facebook and got positive feedback on them from a number of fb friends.
In short, if you are learning or would like to go back to Latin, I highly recommend both books. I hope you have half as much fun with them as I've had!
November 7, 2021
amazon review
A useful collection with some irritating 'translations'
A companion book to the same author's A Dictionary of Latin Tags and Phrases with which there is no overlap in content, it tends to follow the same annoying practice as that other work of giving somewhat loose 'translations' in modern colloquial speak (thus "antiqua homo virtute et fide", literally "a man of old-style virtue and good faith" becomes "they don't make them like that any more") though a more literal translation is usually given in the accompanying commentary.
Each entry also has an American style pronunciation guideline
("ahn-TEE-kwaah HAW-moh wihr-TOO-teh ahk FIH-deh").
Most of the entries in this book are short expressions or phrases rather than complete proverbs, maxims, quotations and the like. It is nevertheless a useful collection.
E. L. Wisty
A useful collection with some irritating 'translations'
A companion book to the same author's A Dictionary of Latin Tags and Phrases with which there is no overlap in content, it tends to follow the same annoying practice as that other work of giving somewhat loose 'translations' in modern colloquial speak (thus "antiqua homo virtute et fide", literally "a man of old-style virtue and good faith" becomes "they don't make them like that any more") though a more literal translation is usually given in the accompanying commentary.
Each entry also has an American style pronunciation guideline
("ahn-TEE-kwaah HAW-moh wihr-TOO-teh ahk FIH-deh").
Most of the entries in this book are short expressions or phrases rather than complete proverbs, maxims, quotations and the like. It is nevertheless a useful collection.
E. L. Wisty
June 11, 2023
Ad multos annos
December 21, 2009
"Helluo librorum" literally means "a devourer of books" or "a glutton for books" - which pretty much describe me. Most of my friends probably would not care less if I speak Latin to them, but I think this book is a good reference for anybody who loves the language.
June 13, 2011
The structuring of the sentences is still a bit weird for me.
March 29, 2022
2.5 stars [Phrasebook]
(W: 2.25, U: 3.5, T: 2.42, L: 2.63)
Exact rating: 2.70
The Latin phrases were organized alphabetically, and dozens were good choices for inclusion. Despite the presence of the Internet, Latin phrases are more accessible in this book than any other place I have found.
On the negative side, the commentary on the phrases was clunky and continually distracting. It even included [mildly] naive political commentary. Ehrlich should have left that element entirely out—though if he had, the Body would have been bare-bones.
(W: 2.25, U: 3.5, T: 2.42, L: 2.63)
Exact rating: 2.70
The Latin phrases were organized alphabetically, and dozens were good choices for inclusion. Despite the presence of the Internet, Latin phrases are more accessible in this book than any other place I have found.
On the negative side, the commentary on the phrases was clunky and continually distracting. It even included [mildly] naive political commentary. Ehrlich should have left that element entirely out—though if he had, the Body would have been bare-bones.
July 27, 2011
There is no way that you cannot enjoy this book. Being a Latin teacher, I found myself highlighting and marking numerous phrases that I will be using in my lessons. The added history of the phrase, or how the phrase can be modernized, made the read very informative. Fun. Fun. Fun.
January 6, 2012
Fun to read through dreaming of tattoos
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews