"I thought my wife ought not even to be under suspicion."
One of the most lines associated with the life of Julius Caesar is usually mistranslated just a little bit to read:
“Caesar’s wife must be above suspicion.”
That famously misquoted admonition comes from Plutarch in which it is usually translated as the above.
“I came, saw, and conquered.”
Indeed, many of the most famous lines associated with Julius Caesar either originated with Parallel Lives or are referenced by Plutarch. This is one of those rare lines that many people recognize both in English and the original Latin:
“Veni, vidi, vici.”
This is one of the occasions when it is make clear that Plutarch is referencing the quote from an earlier source. The entirety of the quotation in which this famous assertion is made appears in John Dryden’s 1906 translation of Plutarch:
“When he gave Amantius, a friend of his at Rome, an account of this action, to express the promptness and rapidity of it, he used three words, I came, saw, and conquered, which in Latin* having all the same cadence, carry with them a very suitable air of brevity.”
“Let the die be cast.”
One might well get the idea that Plutarch was the press agent for the Roman emperor. This is another case where time has twisted the actual words into something that is not such a mouthful. The reference to the die being cast is associated with Caesar’s crossing the Rubicon (not the only famous quote making that association) and has become shorthand slang for reaching a point of no return under the more familiar “The die is cast.”
“I would have you stand from between me and the sun.”
Caesar is not the only ancient figure who is prominently featured in the text. Alexander the Great warrants an entire chapter, but arguably the most memorable quote from that section belongs not to Alexander. When Alexander was staying in Corinth, he labored under the impression that the great philosopher Diogenes of Sinope was not particularly impressed with him. Alexander then went in search of the man and the first words exchanged between them was from Diogenes to the man who had suddenly cast a shadow over him, quite literally.
