# Latin "Veni Vidi Vici" into Greek



## shooter-boy

Hello Everyone,

I am new here and am hoping that somebody can please help me.

I want to get a Tattoo with the Latin phrase Vini Vidi Vici, but in Ancient Greek lettering.

I have tried to find a translation everywhere, but cannot.

Can anybody here help me?

If you cannot translate the phrase, perhaps it's english translation of "I came, I saw, I conquered"?

I thank you in advance for all assistance.

Shooter-boy.
*
PS: Sorry - if you can translate into Ancient Greek (if there is a difference for this phrase) it would be preferred. I tried to edit the thread subject but could not.*


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## Vagabond

Ἦλθον, εἶδον, ἐνίκησα.


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## shooter-boy

Vagabond said:


> Ἦλθον, εἶδον, ἐνίκησα.



Hi Vagabond,

Many thanks for your translation.

I just realised that i mis-spelled it - the Latin is "Veni" not "Vini". Does that affect things, or did you pick that up already?

Many thanks again.

Rob


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## shooter-boy

Vagabond,

I have put that text into Google and it has brought up many results for that being the Ancient Greek translation for the correctly spelt Veni Vidi Vici, so many many thank you's! That is very much appreciated.

Rob


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## wonderment

ἦλθον εἶδον ἐνίκησα 

Hi, your misspelling of the Latin makes no difference. According to the writing convention for Ancient Greek, sentences do not begin with capital letters; in fact SophoKeys (the keys for typing Ancient Greek won't even allow me to type capital letters). So I've re-written the word for "I came" with lowercase eta (personally I think it's more aesthetically pleasing, but it's your tattoo, make it what you want). 

Anyhow, I advise you to wait a few days (or weeks even) before you get this indelibly etched on your body--not because I'm a killjoy, but just to be sure that everything is absolutely correct. I'm sure it is, but just case...Give it a few days, if there's a mistake someone will catch it.


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## shooter-boy

wonderment said:


> ἦλθον εἶδον ἐνίκησα
> 
> Hi, your misspelling of the Latin makes no difference. According to the writing convention for Ancient Greek, sentences do not begin with capital letters; in fact SophoKeys (the keys for typing Ancient Greek won't even allow me to type capital letters). So I've re-written the word for "I came" with lowercase eta (personally I think it's more aesthetically pleasing, but it's your tattoo, make it what you want).
> 
> Anyhow, I advise you to wait a few days (or weeks even) before you get this indelibly etched on your body--not because I'm a killjoy, but just to be sure that everything is absolutely correct. I'm sure it is, but just case...Give it a few days, if there's a mistake someone will catch it.



Thanks Wonderment - much appreciated!

So the first character ἦ you have used is just a lower case Ἦ? Or is it a slightly different word?

I will be waiting a week or two to get my tattoo - we have to design it first as the text will be included with some graphics. So if anyone picks up anything, we can change the design accordingly.

I really appreciate your assistance, many thanks.

Rob


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## wonderment

Hi, again: yes, ἦ is just a lowercase version of Ἦ. Here's the link to Wikiquotes with both the Latin and Greek versions; it's in German, but look for "Veni, vidi, vici" in the first section and you'll find it. (Just keep in mind, it's a work of art--nothing said you _have to_ have punctuation marks. ) Have fun with it!

_Edit add: _here's another option, ΗΛΘΟΝΕΙΔΟΝΕΝΙΚΗΣΑ (same quote but all in capital letters with no word division or accent marks--how the Greeks in the classical period would've inscribed the same quote on marble; see example in this photo or this one).


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## shooter-boy

wonderment said:


> Hi, again: yes, ἦ is just a lowercase version of Ἦ. Here's the link to Wikiquotes with both the Latin and Greek versions; it's in German, but look for "Veni, vidi, vici" in the first section and you'll find it. (Just keep in mind, it's a work of art--nothing said you _have to_ have punctuation marks. ) Have fun with it!
> 
> _Edit add: _here's another option, ΗΛΘΟΝΕΙΔΟΝΕΝΙΚΗΣΑ (same quote but all in capital letters with no word division or accent marks--how the Greeks in the classical period would've inscribed the same quote on marble; see example in this photo or this one).



Great, thanks for that.

The Capital letters version looks awesome too... thanks very much.
The tattoo has a Spartan sort of theme, so the old-style might suit it really well too. I will mess around with them all and see what happens 

Thanks again,

Rob


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## epam

Πω Πω και γω που νόμιζα πως είναι "ήλθον, είδον κι απήλθον" . Το χρησιμοποιούμε ως αστείο εδω στην Κύπρο.


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## shooter-boy

epam said:


> Πω Πω και γω που νόμιζα πως είναι "ήλθον, είδον κι απήλθον" . Το χρησιμοποιούμε ως αστείο εδω στην Κύπρο.



Thankyou for your assistance. Unfortunately i do not speak/read Greek, and have not been able to translate it using online tools. Can anyone assist with this?

Many thanks,

Rob


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## epam

I said:

Wow, and i thought it was "I came, I saw and I left". We use it as a joke in Cyprus.

But it's two thirds correct for Veni, Vidi, Vici


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## shooter-boy

epam said:


> I said:
> 
> Wow, and i thought it was "I came, I saw and I left". We use it as a joke in Cyprus.
> 
> But it's two thirds correct for Veni, Vidi, Vici



Ahahaha. Thank you for your clarification Epam.

Your translation of the "Veni Vidi" portion is the same too.

Thanks,

Rob


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## DimitrisXP

epam said:


> Πω Πω και γω που νόμιζα πως είναι "ήλθον, είδον κι απήλθον" . Το χρησιμοποιούμε ως αστείο εδω στην Κύπρο.


You've probably been inspired by one of Asterix's adventures. Caesar uses this phrase several times after having been defeated by the gauls.


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## wonderment

epam said:


> Πω Πω και γω που νόμιζα πως είναι "ήλθον, είδον κι απήλθον" . Το χρησιμοποιούμε ως αστείο εδω στην Κύπρο.
> ..."I came, I saw and I left". We use it as a joke in Cyprus.



And I thought you meant: "They came, they saw and they left." (said lovingly of barbarian tourists) In California we say: "They came, they saw, we survived." 

(Correction for post#5: for writing Ancient Greek, the first word of a sentence is not capitalized _unless_ it's a proper name. SophoKeys Polytonic doesn't let you type in caps (? strange), but SophoKeys Caps will.)


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## shooter-boy

Thanks very much for your input everyone. 
I am getting the Tattoo tomorrow - with ἦλθον εἶδον ἐνίκησα - thank you to all for your information and assistance, so very much appreciated.

Rob


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## wonderment

Hi, Rob: You’re welcome, and it looks good to go.  Just one thing more you should know: though the saying is unambiguous because it's so famous, "ἦλθον εἶδον ἐνίκησα" can also be translated as “They came, they saw, I conquered.” In Ancient Greek, ἦλθον and εἶδον are 2nd aorist verbs; in the 2nd aorist (past tense) the 1st person singular (I) and 3rd person plural (we) forms look exactly alike.


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## ditty lynn

Does anyone know where I can get this font for a Mac?


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## shooter-boy

ditty lynn said:


> Does anyone know where I can get this font for a Mac?



You don't need a special font, many fonts will display these characters, it's just that you need to be able to enter them. Have a look through the "special characters" of fonts and that should help.

Rob


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## ditty lynn

Thanks, I'll do some looking for those special characters.


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## shooter-boy

ditty lynn said:


> Thanks, I'll do some looking for those special characters.



You can often copy/paste the phrases put here into a Word/Pages/Open Office document and they will appear correctly too. Unless the font used doesn't support them. But if you see them, they're supported.


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## artion

wonderment said:


> _Edit add: _here's another option, ΗΛΘΟΝΕΙΔΟΝΕΝΙΚΗΣΑ ...


 
If you think is too long, you can wrap it in two or three lines, braking the words at any point. This is also a cool Greek and Latin epigraphic style.


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