I came, I bathed, I conquered?

[telophase]

The lake house we stayed at this weekend shared a small swimming pool with a few other houses. There was a concrete enclosure with columns and other decorative elements around the pool, intended to evoke Tuscany. And because there's nothing more Tuscan than Julius Caesar conquering Britain, it had inscribed above it: VENI VEDI VICI.

But. But but but. I am given to understand that the proper word there in the middle is 'vidi,' not 'vedi,' and Googling on my phone (I'm at lunch right now) produces seriously mixed results, so I put it to you, intartubes: is that an alternate spelling, a misspelling, or some sort of pun?

(Really. If it's an alternate or misspelling, what sort of quote is that to put above a swimming pool, anyway?!)

edit: Answer in DW comments: thanks, sophisted!


Sent from my Apple ][e

Comments

[sophisted]

I got my degree in Roman history specifically and the quote was absolutely veni vidi vici (weni widi wici phonetically, to make it a little more amusing). Vedi is the same verb (vedere), only in second person present tense. :) Veni, vidi and vici are all first person remote past (passato remoto, used to refer to things that happened historically.)

[telophase]

So... "I came, You see, I conquered," then? XD

Thanks!

[movingfinger]

Possibly "vedi" was the Roman equivalent of "you know"?

"I came, yanno, I conquered?"

Or "like" perhaps?

"I came, like, I, uh, conquered?"

Or even "look"---"I came, look, I conquered" (unspoken: "So what are you gonna do about it?")

[yhlee]

I could have sworn the verb was videre, not vedere, and second person present indicative would be either vides or videtis? Am I misinformed?

[sophisted]

http://italian.about.com/library/verb/blverb_vedere.htm I had to double check, because it's been years since I've studied Latin, but this is at least a conjugation list that might be helpful.

[yhlee]

Aha! I was thinking Latin; I don't know Italian. Thank you!

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

I'm not so sure about that. The verb is video, and the vi- stem is present in all forms. (http://www.informalmusic.com/latinsoc/verbs/video.html) Thus the imperative is vide, not vedi.

I can't think of a Latin verb that would give you a perfect of vedi, but an awful lot of people seem to think the phrase is 'veni vedi vici.'

[telophase.livejournal.com]

Huh, interesting. So possibly they thought "Hey, need a Latin quote to make it Italian-y", Googled, and got the wrong version.

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

I'd say a high possibility of exactly that.