February 6th, 2023 Latin of the Day - "Quem di diligunt adulescens moritur, dum valet sentit sapit."

February 6th, 2023 Latin of the Day - "Quem di diligunt adulescens moritur, dum valet sentit sapit."

"Quem di diligunt adulescens moritur, dum valet sentit sapit."

"He whom the gods esteem dies young, while he still is healthy, perceptive, and wise." This sentence is spoken sarcastically in a Roman play by an enslaved person to his young enslaver, and the Roman playwright is paraphrasing a famous line from a Greek play by Menander in the first half of the line - ὃν οἱ θεοὶ φιλούσιν ἀποθνήσκει νέος

~ Plautus, Bacchides, IV, 7, 18.

a.d. VIII Idus Februarias anno A.U.C. MMDCCLXXVI