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English is now the de facto lingua franca of the world.

Plautus ca. 254 B.C. - 184 B.C.

Eo sum genere gnatus - such is the stock from which I sprang. Plautus Pseudolus, l. 590 (Act ii sc. 1).

Cicero 106 B.C. - 43 B.C.

Prima societas in ipso conjugio est - The first bond of society is marriage. Cicero, De Officiis Bk. i, ch. 17, sec 54.

Vergil 70 B.C. - 19 B.C.

Magnorum haud umquam indignus avorum - Never unworthy, my great ancestors. Vergil: Aeneid, Bk. xii. l. 649. That is the usual translation, and the sense intended here, but it is possibly out of context. The complete sentence is sancta ad vos anima atque istius nescia culpae descendam, magnorum haud umquam indignus avorum - "I shall go down towards you a pure spirit while unknowing those faults - never unworthy, my great ancestors". It seems to me that it might be the speaker who is telling his great ancestors that he is not unworthy to join them and does not have the fault in question.

Horace 65 B.C. - 8 B.C.

Heres heredem alterius velut unda supervenit undam - Heir follows heir as wave succeeds on wave. Horace: Epistles, Bk. ii, epis. 2, l. 175.

Publilius Syrus 1st century B.C.

Non quam multis placeas, sed qualibus stude - Do not care how many, but whom, you please. Publilius Syrus: Sententiae.

Prose Edda

vitoð ér enn, eða hvat? - Would you like to know more - and what? Prose Edda, from the writings of Snorri Sturluson (ca. 1178 - 1241) and other thirteenth century manuscripts, following a much older oral tradition going back to at least the tenth century.

Last updated 23rd February 2002 by Peter Alefounder