You quoque semi fili

ltr You quoque fili semi - “You also, my son! ” - is a phrase Latin E famous allotted to Jules César.

Historical sources

In its account of died of César, Suétone ( Life of César , LXXXII, 3): “ ltr Atque ita tribes and uiginti plagis confossus is uno modo AD primum ictum gemitu sine uoce edito, etsi tradiderunt quidam Marco Bruto irruenti dixisse: ltr grc καὶ σὺ τέκνον. ” (“It was thus bored twenty-three blows: with the first only, it pushed a moaning, without saying a word. However, some writers report that, indicator to advance against him Marcus Brutus, it says in Greek: “You also, my son!” ”).

The fact is reported, after Suétone, by Dion Cassius (155 - 229 a. J. - C.) also as alternative in the tradition: “ltr grc Ταῦτα μὲν τἁληϑέστατα • ἢδη δέ τινες ϰαὶ ἐϰεῖνο εἶπον, ὃτι πϱὸς τὸν Βϱοῦτον ἰσχυϱῶς πατάξαντα ἔφη • καὶ σὺ τέκνον; ” (“Here is the most veracious version. Some, however, add to this place the following feature. Whereas Brutus carried a violent blow to him, he would have said to him: " You also, my son! ”)

The other sources of which we lay out - Nicolas of Damas, Plutarque and Appien - are dumb on this point.

The famous You quoque, semi fili! is taken again as ensured in the biography of César contained in the ltr it [[Of viris it (Lhomond) Of viris it urbis Romæ has Romulo AD Augustum]] ( Of the famous men of Rome, of Romulus with Auguste ) published in 1779 by the abbot Lhomond: “ ltr Quum Marcum Brutum, quem loco filii habebat, in irruentem vidisset, dixit: “You quoque semi fili!” ” (“When he saw Marcus Brutus, that he treated like his son, precipitating on him, it says: “You also, my son!” ”).

Interpretation

Why in Greek?

The specialists in Suétone, for a long time, hardly gave attention to the last words of the dictator and the historians who evoked this episode generally concluded with his unauthenticity. The Greek quotation, indeed, did not leave be problematic: it is only Vie of César of Suétone, whereas in such a case Suétone always translates. But J. Carcopino pointed out rightly that the word τέκνον was usually employed like a term of affection towards young person than oneself: “My small”. This direction, which is already at Homère, is very well attested, which is not the case for Latin filius . Consequently, the apostrophe of César becomes much more comprehensible and much more probable. If Brutus were not the biological son of César, the dictator did not have of them less with him privileged relations. Brutus was, to some extent, the son-in-law of the left hand of César. One knows besides that Brutus, under the name of Servilius Caepio, was a time promised in marriage to the girl of César, Julie, and that after Pharsale, César tested an extreme joy to know it alive.

Painful surprised of César, when he saw himself attacked by that which owed him all and which he regarded as his son, would thus have been translated in these words, that some of the sources of Suétone and Dion Cassius report: καὶ σὺ τέκνον; “You also, my son! ”. If, at the time when he fails, César chooses the Greek language to be expressed, it is not that it remembered his studies and that it spread out his scholarship - it is not a question there, indeed, of a literary quotation in traditional attic, because there would be παῖ, and not τέκνον, word especially hellenistic -, but he devotes himself well to a spontaneous exclamation emitted under the empire of a feeling violate and who leads it to find the language of his childhood, namely, as for all the Romans of the higher class, the Greek and not Latin.

Significance

The tradition, a long time unanimous, saw in these words a painful reproach addressed to “wire” unworthy. One considered, indeed, that it was a cry of pain of conspicuous César Brutus, his own adoptive son, with the row of entreated: whereas César regards Brutus as one of its allies, this last puts as regards assassin of César who wants to avenge Pompée. It is besides in this direction that Shakespeare makes say to the Jules César of his part “And you, Brute? ”, as celebrates among Anglo-Saxons as the quoque you on our premises. This tradition is abandoned today.

Another interpretation was born then, based on the health condition of César: perhaps epileptic and, therefore, prone to diarrheas or violent one vomiting, César does not listen to the warning statements of his close relations and voluntarily goes to his own assassination in order to put a term in his degrading state. The sentence is then to include/understand in the direction: “You also, my son, you will be old and weak and will undergo the same fate”.

Finally two explanations, which besides largely meet, are now advanced by the specialists. One leaves the illustrated sources, the other of the literary sources.

J. Russell, concerned with the certificates of a apotropaïque καὶ σύ on mosaics and low-reliefs, sees consequently, in the words of dying César, the equivalent of the “sign of the horns”. The betrayed dictator would by no means express his emotion or his surprise. With its " fils" make indignant, it leaves for last message: “I you wish as much, my boy of it! ” Let us acknowledge that the explanation is not only tempting, but in conformity with than we know character of the divine Jules…

P. Arnaud more recently provided a a little different explanation, but which goes in the same direction: the expression of a hostility and a threat. One indeed finds at striking Suétone a parallel. Auguste would have said to Galba child, also in Greek: “You also, my son, you will nibble part of our capacity”, while resorting to the expression καὶ σὺ τέκνον . A similar expression is placed by Dion Cassius in the mouth of Tibère being addressed to very Galba. In both cases, it is thus a question of predicting with somebody whom he will exert one day the absolute capacity. But these words, full with paternal benevolence on behalf of an emperor assured the stability of his mode, at least take obviously a very different value when they are pronounced by César, grave-digger of the republican and assassinated system, officially, for this reason. To say to Brutus which it will take part one day of the same type of being able that its victim, it is to reduce to nothing the image of last defender of the libertas that it wants to give itself, it is to show it to aspire to the same type of being able which makes assassination of César a tyrannicide - and thus to announce and justify the violent death of Brutus in advance itself.

Posterity

The phrase is used, since, to mark a treason. In the Anglo-Saxon world, its equivalent is: “ ltr it And you, Rough? ” (“You also, Brutus? ”). It is resulting from the tragedy of Shakespeare, Julius Caesar , act III, scene 1, towards 77.

See too

Internal bond

“ ltr it [[Risk jacta is]] ”, another famous quotation of Jules César.

External bond

Life of the twelve Césars

Bibliographical sources

Michel Dubuisson, “You also, my son! ”, in Latomus , 39, p. 881-891, 1980
Files '' Some generally accepted ideas in connection with Rome ''

Random links: