Jul 31 2005
Oderint dum metuant: the facts
The Latin sentence is best translated “Let them hate as long as they fear.” Suetonius attributes it to Caligula, though there is no other historical support for this, and he does not credit the original author, Luccius Accius, which suggests that he may have “lifted” it. The literate will know that Accius wrote the Roman tragedy, Atreus, from which the quotation comes.
Attributing this to Caligula (or Julius Caesar, to whom it has also been attributed) is incorrect–even if Suestonius is correct and Caligula usurped the phrase for his own use.
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