Military sayings in Latin

[Sardaukar]

Everyone is bit familiar with old military saying that here is 3 ways to do things, "The right way, the wrong way, the Army way" (how would that go in Latin, by the way?).

Are there any sayings that can be traced to originate from Roman military?

[Neuraleanus]

Everyone is bit familiar with old military saying that here is 3 ways to do things, "The right way, the wrong way, the Army way" (how would that go in Latin, by the way?).

Are there any sayings that can be traced to originate from Roman military?

via dextra, sinistra, disciplinae est

army is actually exercitus, so an alternative would be:

via dextra, sinistra, exercitus est

but I think that the romans would of preferred the use of disciplinae, meaning "discipline of the military".

[Sardaukar]

Thanks!

Something like that is probably how Marius legionaries grumbled.

[D B Campbell]

"The right way, the wrong way, the Army way" (how would that go in Latin, by the way?)

Surely something like: modus verus, modus corruptus, modus exercitus.

(via is a roadway, not a method, which is modus. And I think you're looking for the contrast between "proper" -- maybe rectus, but I think verus sums it up better -- and "improper" -- corruptus has undertones of "disorderly" as well as "improper". Finally, I think modus exercitûs, "the method of the army", rhymes nicely with the other two. Don't you think?)

[Neuraleanus]

(via is a roadway, not a method, which is modus. And I think you're looking for the contrast between "proper" -- maybe rectus, but I think verus sums it up better -- and "improper" -- corruptus has undertones of "disorderly" as well as "improper". Finally, I think modus exercitûs, "the method of the army", rhymes nicely with the other two. Don't you think?)

Tempus to check OLD, Oxford Latin Dictionary, which gives some alternative definitions for via:

7. A course of action or conduct

8. A way of achieving or attaining

9. Means of achieving some object

10. method

So I think that via is certainly suitable, it can refer to either a physical or a metaphysical roadway.

[Jona Lendering]

I think that via is certainly suitable, it can refer to either a physical or a metaphysical roadway.

To the best of my knowledge, "via" is, in this sense, medieval Latin. Then, the scholastics distinguish the Via Moderna and Via Antiqua. If "via" has the same meaning in late ancient or classical Latin, it was a rare meaning; your dictionary offers it as its tenth meaning, my dictionary says "via" is only used as "method" as a metonym that was still recognized as such.

[Neuraleanus]

To the best of my knowledge, "via" is, in this sense, medieval Latin.

I do not believe that to be correct. The references in OLD only go up to about 600AD which isn't quite medieval.

Here is an example given in OLD from Livy:

alia belli gerendi via nulla est there is no other method of war being carried out

[rocktupac]

Yeah! I think we should argue more about the meaning of 'via'!!!

[Ron Andrea]

I like the rhythm and rhyme of Duncan's suggestion, but the right and left ways (the infamous "via") resonates with later usage. We still speak of sinister things as being bad, when it originally just referred to left.

Isn't there a real ancient quote that gets to the same idea?

[Ron Andrea]

I can see soldiers sharing this one forming up yet again against an intransigent foe or another fortified position:

Errare humanum est. Perseverare diabolicum. "To err is human. To repeat error is of the Devil." (Seneca)

[Aulus Perrinius]

Ut armo est privatus Onager est non vestri amicus

When the arm is released the Onager is not your friend

[Ron Andrea]

All artillery has that in common: when it's fired you don't want to be anywhere close. :wink: