# Suum Cuique



## palomnik

I'm not a common visitor on the Latin forum; in fact this is my first time here. I studied Latin for four years and I never quite got a feel for it.

Which is exemplified by the phrase above. It is above the courthouse door in my home town, and although I understand perfectly what the two words mean (at least I think I do!) for the life of me I can't figure out what the phrase means. Can anybody tell me? Is it a quote from something?


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## Cagey

It can be translated: "to each his own".

It is taken from a line by Cicero:  _Nam iustitia, quae suum cuique distribuit ..._ (_de Natura Deorum _III, 38) "For justice, which distributes to each one his own (what is his) ....."

A very hopeful tag to have over the door of a courthouse!


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## scriptum

Cagey said:


> A very hopeful tag to have over the door of a courthouse!


 
The German translation of the phrase (Jedem das seine) was the motto at the entrance to the Buchenwald concentration camp.
“Suum cuique” was not coined by Cicero: it seems to be a literal translation from Greek.
Another meaning of the phrase is “To each his own is beautiful”.


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## Goerzer

The variant form "_unicuique suum_" is the motto of the Osservatore Romano, the (semi)official newspapaer of The Holy See.


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## palomnik

My thanks to everybody.



scriptum said:


> The German translation of the phrase (Jedem das seine) was the motto at the entrance to the Buchenwald concentration camp.
> “Suum cuique” was not coined by Cicero: it seems to be a literal translation from Greek.
> Another meaning of the phrase is “To each his own is beautiful”.


 
Scriptum, I would like to know what the Greek original was, if you can provide it. After my four years of Latin I went on to two years of Greek, which I infinitely prefer (if that's heresy around here, my apologies...)

I have to say that I'm not exactly comfortable with a courthouse in a small North Florida town having the same thing written over its entrance as was written over the entrance to Buchenwald. But then the courthouse predates World War II.


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## scriptum

palomnik said:


> Scriptum, I would like to know what the Greek original was, if you can provide it.


 
Palomnik, I am sorry and ashamed. I have forgotten all my Greek. But I am sure I saw the Greek original - many years ago. Try the Greek forum...


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## Cagey

On this web page I found a discussion concerning the concept of justice that is implied by "Jedem das Seine", a German translation (as pointed out  in Post #3) of "suum cuique", which the author identifies as "distributive justice". He refers to Cicero's concept of justice, and cites in a footnote Cicero's de Legibus 1.6.19.

In the relevant passage, Cicero appears to relate the Greek word meaning 'to distribute' to the Greek word meaning 'law, custom'. 

Certainly, "to each his own" can be said in many languages, including Greek, and will appear in many contexts.  In associating the _suum cuique_ with Cicero's well known tag, I was making an interpretive leap based on the context.  It still seems to me the most likely reference. 

Possibly, Cicero did translate the phrase directly from a Greek saying, but if so, I have not found the Greek.  There is no indication that he is translating from Greek in the context in which the tag to which I refer appears. 

I did not know the darker history of the reference in its German translation.


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## wonderment

palomnik said:


> Scriptum, I would like to know what the Greek original was, if you can provide it. After my four years of Latin I went on to two years of Greek, which I infinitely prefer (if that's heresy around here, my apologies...)



(Please don’t utter such blasphemy in the Latin forum... )

If you just want a Greek translation of the Latin, I would suggest: τα ἑκάστου ἑκάστῳ (to each his own), cf. Matthew 22.21: τοτε λεγει αυτοις αποδοτε ουν τα καισαρος καισαρι και τα του θεου τῳ θεῳ (Then he said to them, give to Caesar the things of Caesar, and to God the things of God.)

As for _suum cuique_, it’s a commonplace in Roman jurisprudence, attributed also to the famous Roman jurist, Ulpian, who defined the fundamental precepts of law as: _honeste vivere, alterum non laedere, suum cuique tribuere _(to live honorably, to harm no one, to give to each his own. _Digesta_ 1.1.10). 

It’s quite possible Cicero had Plato in mind. In the _Republic_ Plato attributes to Simonides, an archaic poet, the view that “justice is to give to each his due”: τὸ τὰ ὀφειλόμενα ἑκάστῳ ἀποδιδόναι δίκαιόν ἐστι (1.331e). But Plato’s Socrates ultimately rejects this principle of justice—different context, different interpretation in another direction.


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## palomnik

My thanks, wonderment, and I have to say that I'm impressed at the level of erudition around this place.  Maybe I'll become a regular visitor.


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