The Europa Barbarorum Quotes Project

[Maion Maroneios]

I know a quote of Paulus Aemilius, the victor of the battle of Pydna:
"Μηδεν εωρακεναι φoβερωτερον και δεινοτερον φαλλαγγος μακεδονικης..."
"Meden eorakenai phoberoteron kai deinoteron phalangos Makedonikes..."
"Never before have I seen anything more fearsome and terrible than the Macedonian phalanx..."

A little treat for Roman-haters and Makedonian-fans

Maion

[Belisarius II]

You could use the two quotes I have on my Sig.

"Rident stlidi verba Latina." "Fools laugh at the Latin language." - Ovid

"Possunt quia posse videntur." "They can because they think they can." - Virgil

These are more short Roman proverbs:

"Salus populi suprema lex." "The safety of the people is the highest law." - Cicero

"Nullum magnum ingenium sine mixtura dementiae fuit." "There has not been any great talent without an element of madness." - Seneca

"Dis aliter visum." "It seemed otherwise to the Gods." - Virgil

"Absens heres non erit." "The absent person will not be an heir." - Unknown

"A cane non magno saepe tenetur aper." "A bour is often held by a not large dog." - Ovid

"Perfer et obdura; dolor hic tibi proderit olim." "Be patient and tough; some day this pain will be useful to you." - Ovid

"Mendacem oportet esse memorem." "A liar must be good at remembering." - Quintilian

"Stultum est timere quod vitare non potes." "it is foolish to fear that which you can not avoid." - Publilius Syrus

"Per varios usus artem experientia fecit." "By different kinds of practice experience has brought skill." - Manilius

"Qui non proficit, deficit." "The one who does not advance falls behind." - Unknown

"Ipsa scientia potestas est." "Knowlegde itself is power." - Bacon

"Dente lupus, cornu taurus petit." "The wolf attacks with his fang, the bull with his horn." - Horace

"Credula vitam spes fovet et melius cras fore semper dicit." "Credulous hope supports our life and always says that tomorrow will be better." - Tibullus

"Canis timidus vehementius latrat quam mordet." "A timid dog barks more violentlt than it bites." - Curtius Rufus

I hope these can be at any all useful.

[/Bean\]

They will be useful if you can produce the sources that these quotes came from. Good stuff though.

[Belisarius II]

First Year Latin By Charles Jenny Jr., Eric C. Baade, and Thomas K. Burgess.
Publisher: Prentice-Hall Inc., Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey and Needham Heights, Massachusetts.
Year Published: 1990

Is this enough information? I can find out more if more information is needed.

[Mediolanicus]

The original sources would be more useful.

You know, like "Cicero, in Catalinam I,1" or something like that...

[/Bean\]

See the first page of this thread for the sort of details the EB II team is looking for.

[Smeel]

oudysseos, would there be any chance of including quotes from the norse Legendary sagas, the Fornaldarsagas? They where written during the 13th century(like those celtic quotes you wrote about), and some of them are about very ancient episodes, like the germanic wars against the Huns, and the such. I've already read some of them, and they certainly have their share of blood, guts, magic swords, elves, dwarves, and fair maidens

If they aren't 100% out of the question, I could try digging up some. the original language would be old norse/old icelandic.

from the Hervararsaga

"Maðr þóttumst ek
mennskr til þessa,
áðr ek sali yðra
sækja hafðak;
seldu mér ór haugi
þann, er hatar brynjur,
hlífum hættan
Hjálmars bana."

“I did think I was mortal,
among the living,
till down I came
to your dead men's hall;
hand me from your howe, then,
what hates armour,
the hazard of shields
Hjalmar's bane.”

Hervor demanding the magic sword Tyrfing from her dead father, Angantyr
Hervararsaga, cap 5.

I Don't understand old norse, so please don't shoot me if the translation is wrong

[oudysseos]

Thanks for the continuing interest, peeps!

Smeel, at the moment I haven't put in the later Irish quotes or the Hildebrandslied etc. But if you have some really good Germanic/Scandinavian quotes, then lay it on me and we'll have a look. The problem is of course that there's no way of knowing how far back the Sagas (for example) go, even in an 'Oral Tradition', and so whether they'd be at all germane to EB.

Having said that, all of our pre-literate factions are going to be unrepresented if we stay hard-core on this (and we have lots of Greek and Latin), so maybee... we'll see. It'll be a judgement call at the end of the day: a quote that is obviously wrong (i.e. mentions Leif Eriksson or something) would be off-putting and break the immersive feel that we want.

See if you can find anything that sounds like it might be from the Sweboz and that general area, without sounding too...Viking. Hwaet!

[Smeel]

Yeah Okay! Since I'm actually enjoing reading the stuff (not hard to understand where Tolkien got most of his ideas).

I understand taht they are a real stretch from the antique world. But at least, the one I'm reading now, the Heravar saga, seems to have very old oral tales in it. according to wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hervarar_saga

The matter on the Gothic wars with the Huns is of considerable age, and is based on events from the early or mid-4th century that were transmitted for almost 1000 years.

It is a testimony to its great age that names appear in genuinely Germanic forms and not in any form remotely influenced by Latin. Names for Goths appear that stopped being used after 390, such as Grýting (Ostrogoth, cf. the Latin form Greutungi) and Tyrfing (Visigoth, cf. the Latin form Tervingi). The events take place where the Goths lived during the wars with the Huns. The Gothic capital Arheimar is located on the Dniepr (...á Danparstöðum á þeim bæ, er Árheimar heita...), King Heidrek dies in the Carpathians (...und Harvaða fjöllum) and the Battle with the Huns takes place on the plains of the Danube (...á vígvöll á Dúnheiði í Dylgjudölum). The mythical Mirkwood which separates the Goths from the Huns, appears to correspond to Maeotian marshes.

Then of course, about the actual told events we have no idea how remotely true they are.
I will continue reading now


Just skimmed through this one:

Ek hefi barizt hundrað sinnum, ok hefi ek haft stundum meira lið, en stundum minna, ok hefi ek jafnan sigr haft, ok eigi skal þat spyrjast, at ek flýja né friðar biðja.
A hundred fights have I fought and whiles I had more, and whiles I had less, and yet even had I the victory, nor shall it ever be heard tell of me that I fled away or prayed for peace."
The words of King Völsung of Hunaland. the Volsungasaga, kap 5.


About Hunaland:

In Old Norse sources, Hunaland often has a mythological character and can shift between different parts of Europe, depending on what kind of skills the hero is to show. It is separated from other countries by the forest Mirkwood, but one source may locate it up in the north at Bjarmaland, another source says that it borders on Reidgotaland, a third source places it in parts of Germany and other sources place it on either side of the Gulf of Bothnia down to Gästrikland, in Sweden.

Second edit: Reidgotaland is the name of the Gothic lands in eastern europe. It's so confusing with the geats, gothlanders and Goths. There is supposedly might some ties with the frankish kingdom, since the latin name for Franks are Hugones, and the anglo-saxon name is Hūgaz

[oudysseos]

Smeel (are you Mr. Smeel on TWC?), that's pretty good. If we do end up using anachronistic material, then it'll get in.

Here are a couple Irish ones, just to have on the record.

Ór ós gréin gelmair gabais for doíne domnaib sceo dee dia oín as Móen mac Áine oínrí
Gold more shining than the bright sun, there seized the lands of humans and of gods the one god who is Moín, son of Áine, the one king.
Móen óen ó ba nóed, Celtica 10

Mál ad-rualaid íathu marb
macc soír Sétne
selaig sratha Fomaire
fo doíne domnaib
A prince who went to the land of the dead, the noble son of Sétne, struck the meadow-lands of the Fomoire beneath the worlds of men.
Mál ad-rúalaid íathu marb, O'Brien, Corpus genealogiarum Hiberniae, 20


Now, if anyone can supply some quotes from Sabaean epigraphy, we'd really be getting somewhere.

[Smeel]

ah, yes, I'm famous just kidding, here are some quotes from the 15th chapter of the Hervara saga. on The Battle of Dun Leath.


At öðrum degi hófu þeir sína orrostu ok börðust allan þann dag ok fóru at kveldi í herbúðir sínar. Þeir börðust svá átta daga, at höfðingjar váru enn heilir, en engi vissi manntal, hvat margt fell. En bæði dag ok nótt dreif lið til Angantýs af öllum vegum, ok þá kom svá, at hann hafði eigi færa fólk en í fyrstu.
The next day they began their battle and fought all that day and went at evening to their camps. They fought thus for eight days, with the leaders unharmed, but none knew the number of those who fell. But day and night more troops thronged to Angantyr’s camp from all directions, so that he had no less men than he had at the start.

The last battle between King Angantyr of the Goths, and prince Hlod of the Huns. The Hervarar saga, chpt 15:The Battle of Dun Heath


"Bauð ek þér, bróðir,
basmir óskerðar,
fé ok fjölð meiðma,
sem þik fremst tíddi;
nú hefir þú hvárki
hildar at gjöldum
ljósa bauga
né land ekki."

“I offered you, brother,
every treasure,
money and many riches,
what you wished the most;
but now for war
you’ve no reward,
no lustrous rings
nor land either.”

Angantyr, standing over the slain body of Hlod, Hervarar saga chpt 15.

directly after the last quote, this:
"Bölvat er okkr, bróðir,
bani em ek þinn orðinn,
þat mun æ uppi,
illr er dómr norna."

“Cursed are we, brother,
your killer I’ve become,
it will never be forgotten—
grim is the doom of norns.”

Angantyr, standing over the slain body of Hlod, Hervarar saga chpt 15.

found this in germania:

Cum ventum in aciem, turpe principi virtute vinci, turpe comitatui virtutem principis non adaequare
In the field of battle, it is disgraceful for the chief to be surpassed in valor; it is disgraceful for the companions not to equal their chief
About the Germanic people, Tacitus, De Origine et situ Germanorum .14

[Alsatia]

"For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?"
- Matthew 16:26

"The object of war is not to die for your country, but to make the other bastard die for his."
- George Patton

Just wondering, how are you going to put in those ridiculously large quotes seen before?

[/Bean\]

@Alsatia: Nice quotes, but the team is really looking for quotes from the EB timeframe, 272BC-14AD. See if you can find any of these.

[Alsatia]

Sorry. I see your point there. How about these, not sure about the first.

"Let no man be called happy before his death. Till then, he is not happy, only lucky."
- Solon

(Latin cannot be found for below)

"Death is not natural for a state as it is for a human being, for whom death is not only necessary, but frequently even desirable."
- Marcus Tullius Cicero

"To have command is to have all the power you will ever need. To have all the power you will ever need, is to have the world in the palm of you hand."
- Tiberus

[Tanit]

"We accept it!"
Response of the Carthaginian Council to the Roman declaration of war.
Polybius, Book III, Ch. 33, p. 77

[Alsatia]

Really? Or was that another quote?

"Famous men have the whole earth as their memorial."
- Pericles

“Ability without honor is useless.”
- Cicero

[Mediolanicus]

Alsatia, could you cite your sources for those quotes?

Just "Cicero" and stuff like that, is a bit meagre, isn't it?

[/Bean\]

Thats exactly (partly) what this quotes project is about; finding the original sources. Check out the first page of this thread to see what the team is looking for Alsatia. You got the right idea for quotes though.

[machinor]

"We accept it!"
Response of the Carthaginian Council to the Roman declaration of war.
Polybius, Book III, Ch. 33, p. 77

This one is awesome! That's got be in EB(II).

[samba_liten]

they disguised and equipped the most physically suitable of their women to make
them look as much as possible like men, giving them jugs and similar bronze
utensils in place of shields and helmets, and promenading them on the side of the
wall where they were in fullest view of the enemy.
(Aeneas Tacticus 40.4, trans. Whitehead 1990, quoted in The Cambridge History of Greek and Roman Warfare)

Again, no original language here. My apologies. I do not know where to find the original for this one.

[oudysseos]

Alright people, I have redone the quotes for EB1!! You can now savour a tasty new quotes experience without having to wait for EBII to come out.

Please note that this is a WIP: I have replaced 30 or so of the quotes from EB1 based purely on my own subjective whim. I have not completed the revision of all the remaining quotes (this is largely done for EBII). At some point I may do so for EB1 as well.

Also note that the new quotes you'll find here are not all the same as the ones we have in EBII. There will still be some surprises coming! Most of the new ones are from this thread: thanks to all who have contributed.

Here is the new quotes.txt file. Just drop this into your data/text file in EB1.

MAKE SURE TO BACK UP THE ORIGINAL QUOTES FILE FIRST. I HAVE NOT PLAYTESTED THIS FILE.

If there are any problems with this let me know and I'll fix it.

I will put this link in the first post of this thread and also on the EB1 forum.

Enjoy.

[machinor]

Nice!

[Alsatia]

Got sources for some of the aforementioned quotes.

"Male parta, male dilabuntur."
"What is dishonorably got, is dishonorably squandered."
- Cicero, Philippicoe II 27

No translation found


"Death is not natural for a state as it is for a human being, for whom death is not only necessary, but frequently even desirable."
- Cicero, Des Republica III 34

Not sure about below

"Famous men have the whole earth as their memorial."
- Pericles, Thucydides History of the Peloponnesian War

[Alsatia]

I'm too late then.

[oudysseos]

No, Alsatia, not at all! For one thing there is no limit to the number of quotes: if you come up with a really good one I'll add it in. For another this is all work in progress: I'll do an update at some point. And the EB1 quotes is just a by-product: the real point of all this was to improve the sourcing for the EB2 quotes. I have made some good progress here but it's not finished by a long shot: my goal is to have more new quotes than repeats from EB1. So your contributions are still very much appreciated.

[Alsatia]

Ok. I'm relieved. Here's a few

In summo periculo timor miericordiam non recipit
"In extreme danger fear feels no pity"
- Gaius Julius Caesar, De Bello Gallico, VII, 26


Libenter homines id quod volunt credunt
"Men gladly believe what they wish"
- Gaius Julius Caesar, De Bello Gallico, III, 18


"Freedom is the sure possession of those alone who have the courage to defend it"
- Pericles, Not found

[lordbuxton]

At the end of the game the king and the pawn go in to the same box.

Italian proverb

[Zarax]

Need to find the source but this is a pretty good one imho:

"The rupture was then inevitable; and the Roman generals did not wait till
the orders of the senate and people arrived; which was what Mithridates had
desired. The design he had long formed of declaring war against the Romans
had occasioned his having made many alliances, and engaged many nations in his
interests. Twenty-two languages, of as many different people, were reckoned
among his troops; all which Mithridates himself spoke with facility."

greatly abridged discourse, which Justin repeats at
length, as it stood in Trogus Pompeius, of whom he is only the epitomizer.

[DaciaJC]

"Trajan engaged the war with hardened soldiers, who despised the Parthians, our enemy, and who didn't care of their arrow blows, after the terrible wounds inflicted by the curved swords of the Dacians."

- Fronto, Principia Historiae, II

I'm sorry, I'm still looking for the original Latin.

[Saldunz]

So, just so that you know, there are some problems with a lot of the new quotes in the EB1 loading screens. Some of them are so long that their beginnings and ends are off-screen. The other problem that may be more on my end (I don't know how to verify or correct this) is that a lot of the Greek doesn't show properly. The polytonic vowels get dropped.