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来た見た勝った kita, mita, katta I came, I saw, I conquered

Japanese Scroll of I came, I saw, I conquered (kita, mita, katta) — Calligraphy by Eri Takase
来た見た勝った Original Scroll by Master Calligrapher Eri Takase

Abstract

来た見た勝った, came, saw, won, is the Japanese of veni, vidi, vici, the three words Caesar used of his victory over Pharnaces at Zela in 47 BC. This study reads the six ancient witnesses in Latin and Greek (the elder Seneca, Plutarch's Life of Caesar and his Sayings of Romans, Suetonius, Appian and Cassius Dio), follows the English from Udall's I came, I looked, I conquered of 1542 to I came, I saw, I conquered in a sermon of 1624, and the Japanese from the Chinese of Lobscheid's dictionary (Hong Kong 1866 and 1869, Tokyo 1883), a dictionary and a translated world history of 1885 and a lexicon of 1887 to the plain past 来た、見た、勝つた of 1910. It finds that the words came into Japanese through dictionaries, a schoolbook and rhetoric lessons, as the model of the short sentence; and that none of the six ancient witnesses names the Roman Senate as addressee, which Latin prose names by 1569, an English poem by 1586 and Japanese histories by 1924, the oldest found here in each.

A reading

The three words were a report of speed before they were anything else, and where the traditions read here drew a lesson from them, it was a lesson in brevity: Plutarch on the matching endings, the English composition books on sentences without and, Lobscheid's dictionary on the asyndeton, and a Japanese teachers' manual of 1910 on ellipsis, which is also the oldest place the National Diet Library's full-text index finds the scroll's own wording. The Japanese came to the line through a dictionary's list of foreign phrases, through Lobscheid's Chinese, 我來,我見,我勝, read with kana, and through a European schoolbook, then the classical perfect, and by 1934 it is the plain 來た見た勝つた of the scroll. Where the tradition drifts it drifts on the addressee: one friend, several friends, the city, the triumph, and at last the Senate, which none of the ancient witnesses names, which Latin prose names by 1569, which an English poet had reading Caesar's dispatches by 1586, and which the Japanese histories of the 1920s repeat. The 1929 essayist who sets the words in the Greek age is in old company; the earliest writer Stevenson could name as quoting them was already mocking a man who put them in the mouth of the insolent barbarian at Thermopylae.

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Overview

The sense. Three verbs, each a first-person past, with nothing between them. The ancient witnesses already read them as a statement about speed rather than about the war: Suetonius says the placard showed not the deeds of the war but how quickly it was finished [1], and Plutarch notes that in Latin the three words end alike, which gives the brevity its force [2]. English and Japanese rhetoric books took the sentence as their example of terseness and of verbs set side by side without and [3][4].

The words. 来た kita, came; 見た mita, saw; 勝った katta, won. Each Latin verb carries I in its ending, and Japanese marks no person. Of the ancient witnesses only Appian's Greek says the pronoun, ἐγὼ δὲ, and I [5]. Lobscheid's English and Chinese dictionary gave the Chinese 來,見,勝 in 1866 and 我來,我見,我勝, with I three times, in 1869 [6][7]; the Japanese dictionaries print the same three characters with kana, 我來リ我見我勝テリ, I came, I saw, I won, and the plain past drops the pronoun [8][9]. 勝つ, to win, is the verb most renderings choose for vici; others write 征服した, conquered [10], or 克てり, prevailed [11]. Japanese has carried the line in three forms: the Chinese-style reading with 吾, 余 or 我, I, from 1885; the classical perfect, 來たり、見たり、勝ちたり or 勝てり, from 1889 to the 1930s; and the plain past, 来た、見た、勝つた, from 1910. The scroll's form is the plain past.

The text in English. The oldest English found here is Erasmus's Apophthegmata in Udall's translation of 1542, I came, I looked, I conquered, and North's Plutarch of 1579, I came, I saw, I overcame [12][13]. The modern wording, I came, I saw, I conquered, is in a sermon preached at Paul's Cross in 1624 [14].

The historical record

47 BC. Zela. Caesar met Pharnaces, son of Mithridates, near the city of Zela, drove him out of Pontus and destroyed his army [2]. Appian tells the battle, has Caesar exclaim on Pompey's fortune in winning his name against such enemies, and ends the chapter with the words: ἐς δὲ Ῥώμην περὶ τῆσδε τῆς μάχης ἐπέστελλεν· ἐγὼ δὲ ἦλθον, εἶδον, ἐνίκησα, of this battle he wrote to Rome: "And I came, I saw, I conquered" [5].

The elder Seneca, Suasoriae 2.22. The earliest of the six witnesses. Seneca mocks a declaimer who, arguing that the three hundred Spartans should stand at Thermopylae, said expectemus, si nihil aliud, hoc effecturi, ne insolens barbarus dicat: "veni, vidi, vici", let us wait, if only to prevent the insolent barbarian from saying "I came, I saw, I conquered", and adds: cum hoc post multos annos divus Iulius victo Pharnace dixerit, when it was many years later that the deified Julius said this, after defeating Pharnaces [15]. The words are already Caesar's, already tied to Pharnaces, and already quoted out of their age. Stevenson's Home Book of Quotations calls this the earliest occurrence of the saying in literature [16].

Plutarch, Life of Caesar 50. καὶ τῆς μάχης ταύτης τὴν ὀξύτητα καὶ τὸ τάχος ἀναγγέλλων εἰς Ῥώμην πρός τινα τῶν φίλων Ἀμάντιον ἔγραψε τρεῖς λέξεις· ἦλθον, εἶδον, ἐνίκησα, in announcing the swiftness and fierceness of this battle to one of his friends at Rome, Amantius, Caesar wrote three words: "Came, saw, conquered" [2]. Plutarch gives them in Greek and adds that in Latin the words end alike [2].

Plutarch, Sayings of Romans, Caesar 12. Φαρνάκην δὲ νικήσας τὸν Ποντικὸν ἐξ ἐφόδου πρὸς τοὺς φίλους ἔγραψεν, ἦλθον εἶδον ἐνίκησα, after he had conquered Pharnaces of Pontus by a swift drive against him, he wrote to his friends "I came, saw, conquered" [17]. Here the letter goes to his friends, plural, and no city is named.

Suetonius, Divus Julius 37. Of the Pontic triumph: inter pompae fercula trium verborum praetulit titulum VENI · VIDI · VICI non acta belli significantem sicut ceteris, sed celeriter confecti notam, among the show-pieces of the procession he displayed an inscription of three words, "I came, I saw, I conquered", marking not the events of the war, as the others did, but the speed with which it was finished [1].

Cassius Dio 42.48. Dio gives no letter: Caesar was prouder of this victory than of any other, because on the same day and in the same hour, he had come to the enemy, had seen him, and had conquered him, καὶ ἦλθε πρὸς τὸν πολέμιον καὶ εἶδεν αὐτὸν καὶ ἐνίκησε [18]. Florus, who does not give the three words, has the same boast of speed: Caesar crushed Pharnaces more fulminis, quod uno eodemque momento venit, percussit, abscessit, like a thunderbolt, which in one and the same moment has come, has struck and has departed, and claimed ante hostem victum esse quam visum, that the enemy was defeated before he was seen [19].

The addressee. The six ancient witnesses give the words as said (Seneca), as written to one friend at Rome (the Life), to his friends (the Sayings), to Rome (Appian), as carried in the triumph (Suetonius), and as narration with no addressee (Dio) [15][2][17][5][1][18]. None of them names the Roman Senate. The nearest is Appian's to Rome.

The text in English

1542. Nicholas Udall's translation of Erasmus's Apophthegmes. When he had euen at the first choppe of encountreyng vanquyshed Pharnaces, he wrote briefly to his frẽdes after this sorte: I came, I looked, I conquered [12]. The plural frendes is the Sayings' to his friends, not the Life's one friend, and Udall's note reads the words as the greate celeritee and spede of dooyng [12].

1579. Thomas North's Plutarch. And bicause he would aduertise one of his frendes of the sodainnes of this victorie, he onely wrote three words vnto Anitius at Rome: Veni, Vidi, Vici: to wit, I came, I saw, I ouercame. These three wordes ending all with like sound and letters in the Latin, haue a certaine short grace, more pleasaunt to the eare, then can be well expressed in any other tongue [13]. This is the Life: one friend, Anitius, North's form of Amantius, who is Anitius again a few lines on (the long s is given as s here and below).

1586. William Warner, Albions England. In Britain, Warner's Caesar tells his soldiers that this time the dispatch will not be the usual one: But not, as was my wont to wright, the Senate now shall réede, I came: I sawe: I ouer-came: such Foes forbid such spéede [20]. This is the oldest naming in English found here of the Senate as the usual reader of the three words. The Latin had it earlier. In Alcalá in 1569, Álvar Gómez de Castro's life of Cardinal Cisneros, telling of the swift taking of Oran, says that everyone repeated id quod Cæsar Pharnace deuicto ad Senatũ scripsit, Veni, vidi, vici, what Caesar wrote to the Senate when Pharnaces was beaten [21]. In Zürich in 1575, Heinrich Bullinger's commentary on Lamentations recalls illius breuissimi nuncij Iulij Cæsaris, that briefest of messages of Julius Caesar: Ita enim senatui Romano significauit congressum se in Oriente cum Pharnace, ac vicisse, for so he told the Roman Senate that he had met Pharnaces in the East and won [22]. Of the 135 items the Internet Archive's full-text index finds for veni vidi vici and dates 1586 or earlier, these two name the Senate in the lines around the words (a third, the 1493 Nuremberg Chronicle, does so only in its modern translator's note); the rest were read only in those lines, and tellings in French or Italian that do not quote the Latin were not searched, so this study does not say which telling named the Senate first.

1591. John Harington's Ariosto. In the last book of Orlando Furioso, a tapestry shows a prince the verse names Hippolito (stanza 70); at stanza 80 he relieves the Church with raw soldiers, and Yet did his onely presence so affright, The aduerse part, that one may rightly bost, It quencht the fire, ear it to burne began, So he may say, I came, I saw, I wan [23]. The verse gives Caesar's words, unnamed, to another commander. The Italian was not read here, so this study does not say whether the turn is Ariosto's or Harington's.

1594 to 1610. Shakespeare. As the 1623 Folio prints them: Armado in Love's Labour's Lost, Veni, vidi, vici: Which to annothanize in the vulgar, O base and obscure vulgar; videliset, He came, See, and ouercame, where modern texts read saw [16][24]; Falstaff in 2 Henry IV, I may iustly say with the hooke-nos'd fellow of Rome, I came, saw, and ouer-came; Rosalind in As You Like It, Cesars Thrasonicall bragge of I came, saw, and ouercome; and the Queen in Cymbeline, A kinde of Conquest Cæsar made heere, but made not heere his bragge Of Came, and Saw, and Ouer-came [25][26].

1624. John Lawrence, A Golden Trumpet, a sermon at Paul's Cross. I remember a certaine Roman Generall, after the besieging such a Towne, was demanded by one of his friends of his proceedings, who answered; Veni, vidi, vici: I came, I saw, I conquered [14]. The preacher names no Caesar and sets the words at a siege; the English wording is the modern one.

1836. Henry Wilkinson Williams, A Treatise on English Composition. The composition book uses the sentence twice. On conjunctions: in the sentence, "I came, I saw, I conquered," the absence of conjunctions promotes a rapid transition of thought, and marks the celerity of the proceedings of the illustrious general who employed it (p. 48). On the concise style: The sentence of Cæsar, "I came, I saw, I conquered," forms a much more vivid and animated description of the successful enterprise to which it had reference, than any lengthened statement, embellished with all the pomp and imagery of a vigorous fancy (p. 71) [3].

The text in Japanese

1866 and 1869. Lobscheid's English and Chinese dictionary, Hong Kong. In Part I (1866) a footnote gives The sentence, Veni, vidi, vici, 來,見,勝, with I came, I saw, I conquered in English, the I set in brackets each time, and calls it an asyndeton [6]. In Part IV (1869), between Venison and Venom: Veni, vidi, vici, 我來,我見,我勝, with the Cantonese and Mandarin readings, Wo lái, wo kien, wo shing [7]. The pronoun is the dictionary's own Chinese.

1883. Lobscheid in Tokyo. 井上哲次郎's enlarged edition of the dictionary, printed in Tokyo, carries the 1869 Chinese with the English beside it and without the Cantonese and Mandarin readings: Veni, vidi, vici. I came, I saw, I conquered, 我來, 我見, 我勝 [27].

1885. 市川's dictionary and Welter's world history. 市川義夫's 『英和和英字彙大全』, printed at Yokohama, has in the list of foreign phrases at the end of its English-Japanese part: Veni, vidi, vici. (Lat.) 吾レハ來リ吾レハ見吾レハ勝チタリ, I came, I saw, I won; the entry, in the index's text, names no one [28]. That part's colophon gives the copyright licence of 8 April 1885 and publication on 31 July 1885, and the book was reprinted in 1886. The pronoun is 吾, not Lobscheid's 我. In September 1885, 加藤時次郎's translation of Theodor Welter's world history has Caesar strike Pharnaces as fast and as cleanly as his report of victory to Rome, 羅馬エノ勝利ノ報知カウエニ、ウイヂー、ウイチー(即チ余ハ、來リタリ、見タリ、勝タリ)トノ三言ヲ含ンタル如ク, as the report of his victory to Rome, which held the three words "veni, vidi, vici" (that is, I came, I saw, I won) [29]. There the Latin is in katakana only, and the pronoun is 余, I. The dictionary's line is the oldest Japanese rendering of the words found here, and Welter's the oldest Japanese sentence found that tells Caesar's story with them.

1887. The English-Japanese lexicon. The appendix of An English and Japanese Lexicon, revised by 杉浦, 井上 and 曲直瀬 and published by 大倉 in 1887, reads: Veni, vidi, vici. (羅)我來リ我見我勝テリ「セーサル」戰勝ヲ羅都ニ報告セル詞ニシテ簡切雄勁ヲ以テ世ニ稱セラルヽ文辭ナリ, (Latin) I came, I saw, I won: the words in which Caesar reported his victory to the city of Rome, famous for their terse vigor [8]. 我來リ我見我勝テリ is Lobscheid's 我來,我見,我勝 with kana added. The 和訳字彙 of 1888, a Japanese Webster, carries the same gloss with Caesar written 塞撒爾 (セーザル) and the city 羅馬府 [30].

1889. 尺振八, 『明治英和字典』, in its list of quotations from the Greek, Latin and modern languages. Veni, vidi, vici. (羅) 來タリ、見タリ、勝チタリ [31]. The classical perfect, without 我.

1890. 宮崎湖処子, 『帰省』. The narrator remembers leaving for Tokyo, 未來の空念と大望を以て、我來り我見我勝つ爲めに往くものゝ如く, with empty dreams of the future and great ambition, as one going there to come, to see and to win [32]. Caesar is not named on the page: the dictionaries' phrase has become an allusion a reader was expected to catch.

1910. 島田民治, 『国語科教授要義』, a manual for teachers of the national reader. Under 省略法, ellipsis: シーザーの名文「来た、見た、勝つた」の如きも是れなり, Caesar's famous words, "came, saw, won," are an example [9]. The plain past, and the first character is 来, the scroll's own. It is the oldest form of the scroll's wording in the National Diet Library's full-text index.

1920. 坪内逍遥's As You Like It. Rosalind: 「來た、見た、勝つた」といふ例のシーザーの高言ぢやあるまいし, as if it were that brag of Caesar's, "came, saw, won" [33]. Shakespeare's line reaches Japanese in the plain past.

1924. 佐々木恒清, 『受験西洋史の準備』. Veni, Vidi, Vici (來た、見た、勝つた)の三語を以て元老院へ戰勝報告, he reported his victory to the Senate in the three words [34]. The oldest Japanese naming of the Senate found here. None of the six ancient witnesses gives it; the Latin had it by 1569 and Warner's English in 1586 [21][20].

1929, collected 1931. 畑耕一. 希臘時代はなんといつても、例のVini, vidi, vici(來たり見たり勝ちたり)といふ思想で、非常に心持が簡潔だつたから, in the Greek age it was, after all, that "veni, vidi, vici" way of thinking, and feeling was very simple [35]. The sentence stands in 畑's essay 近代戀愛表情術 in a 1929 anthology, seen in the index's snippets only [36], and on p. 66 of his essay collection 『女たらしの昇天』 of 1931, read at the page [35]. The Latin is misspelled and the age is wrong, as the declaimer in Seneca had it wrong nineteen centuries earlier.

1934. 今井登志喜, 『西洋歴史解説』. Caesar's letter to a friend at Rome: Veni Vidi Vici「來た見た勝つた。」 [37]. The three verbs without commas, as the scroll has them.

The dictionaries today. デジタル大辞泉: カエサルがポントス王を討ったとき、友人に書いた手紙の文。簡単明瞭な手紙の例とされる, the words of a letter Caesar wrote to a friend when he defeated the king of Pontus; taken as the model of a short, clear letter. 山川 世界史小辞典: a report to Rome, and 一説では凱旋式の行列の高札の句, by another account, the words of a placard in the triumphal procession. 旺文社世界史事典 and the 世界大百科事典: a report to the Senate [38]. The ancient versions survive in the reference works beside the Senate.

Today. What a rendering must keep is the three bare verbs and their tense.

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Japanese Scrolls by Master Calligrapher Eri Takase

Japanese Scroll of I came, I saw, I conquered (kita, mita, katta) in a block font by Master Japanese Calligrapher Eri Takase
来た見た勝ったVB3CBlock
Japanese Scroll of I came, I saw, I conquered (kita, mita, katta) in a cursive font by Master Japanese Calligrapher Eri Takase
来た見た勝ったVC4BCursive
Japanese Scroll of I came, I saw, I conquered (kita, mita, katta) in Master Japanese Calligrapher Eri Takase's own style (Eri's Choice)
来た見た勝ったVD5BEri's Choice
Japanese Scroll of I came, I saw, I conquered (kita, mita, katta) in a semi-cursive font by Master Japanese Calligrapher Eri Takase
来た見た勝ったVS4CSemi-Cursive

Sources not seen

市川義夫's 『英和和英字彙大全』 of 1885 and 1886 (three National Diet Library copies) [28]: the library's full-text index gives the entry's text, and its page images are not served outside Japan, so the entry is quoted from the index and not read at the page. 『教育報知』 of April 1890 [4]: shown only in Japan; quoted from the index's excerpt. 畑耕一's 「近代戀愛表情術」 in 『近代恋愛術』 (博文館, 1929) [36]: shown only in Japan; the 1931 collection that reprints it was read at the page [35].

A reader with access to any of these is invited to write to Takase Studios at Tim@Takase.com.

References

  1. Suetonius, Divus Julius 37, at The Latin Library. https://www.thelatinlibrary.com/suetonius/suet.caesar.html
  2. Plutarch, Life of Caesar 50.2–4, Greek text and Bernadotte Perrin's translation (Loeb, 1919), at the Perseus Digital Library and LacusCurtius. http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0007.tlg048.perseus-grc1:50 · https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Lives/Caesar*.html
  3. Henry Wilkinson Williams, A Treatise on English Composition, 1836, pp. 48 and 71, read at the page images. https://archive.org/details/atreatiseonengl00willgoog/page/n52 · https://archive.org/details/atreatiseonengl00willgoog/page/n75
  4. 『教育報知』, April 1890, a lesson on figures of speech: 『來り、見たり、勝てり』とは是此人にいふべきか (これは有名なる羅馬の撒塞が報告の文を引きたるなり), quoted from the index excerpt. National Diet Library pid 3546138. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/3546138
  5. Appian, Civil Wars 2.91, Greek text at the Scaife Viewer and Horace White's translation (Loeb, 1913) at LacusCurtius. https://scaife.perseus.org/reader/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0551.tlg017.perseus-grc2:2.13.91/ · https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Appian/Civil_Wars/2*.html
  6. W. Lobscheid, English and Chinese Dictionary, with the Punti and Mandarin Pronunciation, Part I, Hongkong: Daily Press office, 1866, p. 105, footnote. https://archive.org/details/englishchinesedi00lobsrich/page/n148
  7. W. Lobscheid, English and Chinese Dictionary, with the Punti and Mandarin Pronunciation, Part IV, Hongkong: Daily Press office, 1869, p. 1914, Veni, vidi, vici. https://archive.org/details/lobscheid-english-and-chinese-dictionary-1866-69-volumes-1-4/Lobscheid%2C%20English%20and%20Chinese%20dictionary%20%281866-69%29%20-%20Volume%204%2C%20R-Z/page/n506
  8. An English and Japanese Lexicon, Explanatory, Pronouncing and Etymological, revised by S. Sugiura, J. Inoue and A. Manase, M. Okura, 1887, appendix p. 46. National Diet Library pid 1699966, scan 506. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1699966/1/506
  9. 島田民治『国語科教授要義 : 新国定教科書』, 広文堂, 1910, p. 137. National Diet Library pid 812079, scan 78. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/812079/1/78
  10. 松村松年『新時代の国民体育』, 1926, p. 307: 『來た、見た、征服した』, read at the page image. National Diet Library pid 939879, scan 167. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/939879/1/167
  11. ボツフオード著, 竹林熊彦訳『西洋古代史概説』, 1930, p. 504: 我來たり、我見たり、我克てり, read at the page image. National Diet Library pid 1180119, scan 257. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1180119/1/257
  12. Erasmus, Apophthegmes, translated by Nicholas Udall, London, 1542, Caesar 12, read at the page image. https://archive.org/details/bim_early-english-books-1475-1640_apophthegmes-that-is-to_r-gratton_1542/page/n593
  13. Plutarch, The Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romanes, translated by Thomas North, London, 1579, p. 787, read at the page image. https://archive.org/details/bim_early-english-books-1475-1640_the-lives-of-the-noble-g_north-t_1579/page/n802
  14. John Lawrence, A Golden Trumpet, to rowse vp a drowsie Magistrate, a sermon at Paul's Cross, 11 April 1624, London: Iohn Haviland, 1624, pp. 99–100, read at the page image. https://archive.org/details/bim_early-english-books-1475-1640_a-golden-trumpet-to-rous_lawrence-john_1624/page/n118
  15. Seneca the Elder, Suasoriae 2.22, at The Latin Library. https://www.thelatinlibrary.com/seneca.suasoriae.html
  16. Burton Stevenson, The Home Book of Quotations, fourth edition, 1944, "Conquest" and the Shakespeare quotations, read in the book's digital text.
  17. Plutarch, Sayings of Romans, Caesar 12 (Moralia 206E), Greek text at the Scaife Viewer and Frank Cole Babbitt's translation (Loeb, Moralia III, 1931) at LacusCurtius. https://scaife.perseus.org/reader/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0007.tlg081.perseus-grc3:91/ · https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Moralia/Sayings_of_Romans*/B.html
  18. Cassius Dio, Roman History 42.48, Greek text at the Scaife Viewer and Earnest Cary's translation (Loeb) at LacusCurtius. https://scaife.perseus.org/reader/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0385.tlg001.perseus-grc2:42.48/ · https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Cassius_Dio/42*.html
  19. Florus, Epitome 2.13.61–63, Latin text and E. S. Forster's translation (Loeb) at LacusCurtius. https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/L/Roman/Texts/Florus/Epitome/2E.html · https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Florus/Epitome/2E.html
  20. William Warner, Albions England, the third book, chapter 17, London: George Robinson for Thomas Cadman, 1586, p. 70, read at the page image. https://archive.org/details/bim_early-english-books-1475-1640_albions-england-_warner-william_1586/page/n75
  21. Álvar Gómez de Castro (Aluarus Gomecius), De rebus gestis a Francisco Ximenio, Cisnerio, Archiepiscopo Toletano, libri octo, Compluti (Alcalá de Henares): apud Andream de Angulo, 1569, book 4, fol. 114, read at the page image; title page at n4. https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_KF1yjR0T7GkC/page/n262
  22. Heinrich Bullinger, Ieremias fidelissimus et laboriosissimus Dei propheta … Accessit his breuis Threnorum explicatio, Tiguri (Zürich): Christophorus Froschouerus, 1575, In Threnos Ieremiae, chapter 2, read at the page image; title page at n0. https://archive.org/details/bim_early-english-books-1641-1700_bullinger-heinrich_1575/page/n611
  23. Ludovico Ariosto, Orlando Furioso in English Heroical Verse, translated by John Harington, London, 1591, book 46, stanzas 70 and 80, read at the page images. https://archive.org/details/bim_early-english-books-1475-1640_orlando-furioso-in-engli_ariosto-ludovico_1591/page/n419 · https://archive.org/details/bim_early-english-books-1475-1640_orlando-furioso-in-engli_ariosto-ludovico_1591/page/n420
  24. F. P. Wilson, ed., The Oxford Dictionary of English Proverbs, third edition, Oxford University Press, 1970, "Came, saw, and overcame, I", read in the book's digital text.
  25. Morris Palmer Tilley, A Dictionary of the Proverbs in England in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, University of Michigan Press, 1950, C540, read in the book's digital text.
  26. Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies, London, 1623 (the First Folio), read at the page images: Loves Labour's lost (n145), As you Like it (n219), The second Part of Henry the Fourth, p. 92 (n409), The Tragedy of Cymbeline (n885). https://archive.org/details/bim_early-english-books-1475-1640_mr-william-shakespeare_1623/page/n145 · https://archive.org/details/bim_early-english-books-1475-1640_mr-william-shakespeare_1623/page/n219 · https://archive.org/details/bim_early-english-books-1475-1640_mr-william-shakespeare_1623/page/n409 · https://archive.org/details/bim_early-english-books-1475-1640_mr-william-shakespeare_1623/page/n885
  27. 羅布存徳 原著, 井上哲次郎 訂増『英華字典』, Tokio, 1883, p. 1154. National Diet Library pid 994614, scan 581. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/994614/1/581
  28. 市川義夫 編訳, 島田三郎 校『英和和英字彙大全』, 横浜: 如雲閣, English-Japanese part published 31 July 1885 (明治十八年四月八日版權免許, 同年七月三十一日出版, colophon at scan 418), the entry at scan 417; quoted from the National Diet Library's index text, since the page images are not served outside Japan. National Diet Library pid 1939291. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1939291/1/417 · The same entry in pid 870117, scan 113 (catalogued 明治18年, pp. 609–820), and in the 1886 printing, pid 870118, scan 415 (colophon 明治十九年 … 出版, scan 416).
  29. ウェルテル 著, 加藤時次郎 訳『万国史』 上篇 (太古史), 東京, 1885, p. 238. National Diet Library pid 768440, scan 123. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/768440/1/123
  30. イーストレーキ, 棚橋一郎 訳『和訳字彙 : ウェブスター氏新刊大辞書』, 1888, the appendix 外國語彙, p. 83, read at the page image. National Diet Library pid 869978, scan 686. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/869978/1/686
  31. 尺振八 訳『明治英和字典』, 六合館, 1889, Part VIII, p. 1196. National Diet Library pid 870185, scan 110. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/870185/1/110
  32. 宮崎湖処子『帰省』, 民友社, 1890, p. 26. National Diet Library pid 872272, scan 16. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/872272/1/16
  33. シエークスピヤ著, 坪内逍遥訳『お気に召すまゝ』, 早稲田大学出版部, 1920, p. 190. National Diet Library pid 962971, scan 108. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/962971/1/108
  34. 佐々木恒清『受験西洋史の準備』, 研究社, 1924, p. 42. National Diet Library pid 913290, scan 32. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/913290/1/32
  35. 畑耕一『女たらしの昇天』, 新思想社, 1931, p. 66. National Diet Library pid 1170982, scan 42. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1170982/1/42
  36. 新青年編輯部 編『近代恋愛術』, 博文館, 1929, 畑耕一「近代戀愛表情術」, from the index's snippets (Japan-only item). National Diet Library pid 1031892. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1031892
  37. 今井登志喜『西洋歴史解説』, 目黒書店, 1934, p. 46. National Diet Library pid 1211964, scan 28. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1211964/1/28
  38. 「来た見た勝った」, デジタル大辞泉 · 山川 世界史小辞典 · 旺文社世界史事典 · 世界大百科事典, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/来た見た勝った-3210292

Authors

Tim Jackowski (Systems Architect, Takase Studios, LLC) · 典 Ten (Anthropic Claude Fable 5.1, Sonnet 5 and Opus 5.5, Takase Studios, LLC)

AI written · Ten wrote the history. Tim Jackowski commissioned it and answers for it.

Checked · Grok 4.6 (xAI), 2026-09-06, citations of the history as it stood on that date; a later amendment has not been re-checked · a fresh-context checker (Claude), 2026-11-03, citations: every reference tested at its address; the one that differed (島田 1910's first glyph) judged at the page image and held; the archive.org leaves, the ancient texts and the index-only NDL items could not be opened by the checker · two fresh-context readers (Claude), 2026-11-03, every claim in the page's summary block traced to its source: round 1 PASS from both, no wrong fact; wordings narrowed at the sources, and the body's Williams 1836 (now at its leaves), 1883 and 1885 entries brought to the page

Research depth: step 7 of our 10-step ladder, read and signed · November 2026

Cite as: Tim Jackowski and Ten, "Philology of 来た見た勝った (kita, mita, katta)," Takase Studios, 2026, https://takase.com/library/philology/kita-mita-katta.