Ave Imperator, morituri te salutant

"Those who are about to die salute you" redirects here. For the album by Colosseum, see Those Who Are About to Die Salute You.
"Ave Caesar" redirects here. For the board game, see Ave Caesar (board game).

Somewhat stylized view from within a Roman arena; a group of around seven gladiators are picked out by the sunlight saluting the Emperor, their weapons and shields held aloft. The stalls for the immense audience stretch into the distance. On the ground a small number of the dead from previous combats lie where they fell in the sand.
Ave Caesar! Morituri te salutant, by Jean-Léon Gérôme (1859), inaccurately depicting gladiators greeting Vitellius

Avē Imperātor, moritūrī tē salūtant ("Hail, Emperor, those who are about to die salute you") is a well-known Latin phrase quoted in Suetonius, De vita Caesarum ("The Life of the Caesars", or "The Twelve Caesars").[1] It was reportedly used during an event in AD 52 on Lake Fucinus by naumachiarii—captives and criminals fated to die fighting during mock naval encounters—in the presence of the emperor Claudius. Suetonius reports that Claudius replied "Aut nōn" ("or not").

Variant components in the exchange include "Have"[2] as the first word instead of the grammatically proper "Avē", as well as the alternate wordings "Avē Caesar" and "Moritūrī tē salūtāmus"[3]—the latter in the 1st person ("We who are about to die salute you")[4]—and a response in 15th-century texts of "Avete vos" ("Fare you well").[5]

Despite its popularization in later times, the phrase is not recorded elsewhere in Roman history. Historians question whether it was ever used as a salute. It was more likely an isolated appeal by desperate captives and criminals condemned to die, and noted by Roman historians in part for the unusual mass reprieve granted by Claudius to the survivors.

  1. ^ Suetonius, De Vita Caesarum: Divus Claudius, 21.6
  2. ^ The Latin text, with no length marks, together with the English translation is stated to be a reproduction of the 1914 Latin published text from the Loeb Classical Library of Harvard University. Vowel length marks added here to the Latin text follow those found in the 2016 edition of Dictionnaire Illustré Latin-Français, and in the Woordenboek Latijn/Nederlands (7th revised edition, 2018), and in general the grammar and meaning of the text, except for the vocalization of "have", which is according to Quintilian.
  3. ^ Stone, Jon R (2005). The Routledge Dictionary of Latin Quotations: The Illiterati's Guide to Latin Maxims, Mottoes, Proverbs and Sayings. Routledge. p. 232. ISBN 978-0-415-96909-3.
  4. ^ Greek text cited with French translation at [1]: Dion Cassius, Histoire Romaine LX (33) (Translated by E. Gros)
  5. ^ Joseph Brown Pike, ed. (1903). Gai Suetoni Tranquilli de vita Caesarum, libri III-VI: Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, Nero. Allyn and Bacon. p. 259. avete vos.