Veni, vidi, vici  

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"Veni, vidi, vici" ("I came, I saw, I conquered") is a dictum. Its popular usage reportedly originates from a letter that Julius Caesar wrote to the Roman Senate around 46 BC, in the city of Zela (now in Tokat Province, Turkey, and known as Zile), after achieving victory in his short war against Pharnaces II of Pontus.

Veni, vidi, and vici are first person perfect forms of the Latin verbs venire, videre, and vincere, which mean "to come", "to see", and "to conquer", respectively. The sentence's form is classed as a tricolon and a hendiatris. It appears in Plutarch (Plut. Caes. 50) and Suetonius (Suet. Iul. 37.). Plutarch reports that Caesar "gave Amantius, a friend of his at Rome, an account of this action", whereas Suetonius says "In His Pontic triumph he displayed among the show-pieces of the procession an inscription of but three words, 'I came, I saw, I conquered'".

Examples of popular usage

• King Jan III of Poland alluded to the phrase after the Battle of Vienna in 1683, saying "Venimus, Vidimus, Deus vicit" ("We came, We saw, God conquered").

"Veni, vidi, vici", or variations of the phrase, have been used in several well-known pieces of music:

• The opening of Handel's 1724 opera Giulio Cesare ("Curio, Cesare venne, e vide, e vinse" ["Curio, Caesar came, saw, and conquered"]).
• The 1940s song "These Foolish Things (Remind Me of You)".
• The song "Mame" in the musical of the same name ("You came, you saw, you conquered").
• "Encore" by Jay-Z.
• "Beware! Criminal" by Incubus.
• The title of The Hives album Veni Vidi Vicious.

Numerous references have also been made in literature and film.

• After the death of his daughter Leopoldine in 1843 at the age of 19, the French poet Victor Hugo wrote the poem "Veni, vidi, vixi" ("I came, I saw, I lived"). The first verse is "J'ai bien assez vecu ...", which could be translated as "I have already lived too long ...".
• In the 1984 film Ghostbusters, Peter Venkman delivers a humorous variation on the phrase: "We came. We saw. We kicked its ass." This line was among the 400 nominees for the AFI's 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes.