Noli turbare circulos meos!

"Nōlī turbāre circulōs meōs!" is a Latin phrase, meaning "Do not disturb my circles!". It may have been uttered by Archimedes as his last words, though there is no reliable evidence of this.

Origin

According to Valerius Maximus, the phrase was uttered by the ancient Greek mathematician and astronomer Archimedes. When the Romans conquered the city of Syracuse after the siege of 214–212 BC, the Roman general Marcus Claudius Marcellus ordered to retrieve Archimedes. Some soldiers entered the house of Archimedes and one of the soldiers asked Archimedes who he was. But, according to Valerius Maximus (Facta et dicta memorabilia, Book VIII.7), Archimedes just answered Noli, obsecro, istum disturbare^[1] ("Do not, I entreat you, disturb that (sand)"), because he was so engrossed in the circles drawn on the sand in front of him. After that, one of the soldiers killed Archimedes, despite the order of Marcus Claudius Marcellus.

Authenticity

There is no reliable evidence that Archimedes uttered these words and they do not appear in the account given by Plutarch in his Parallel Lives.^[1] Valerius Maximus (Facta et dicta memorabilia, Book VIII.7) attests the Latin form "noli ... istum disturbare".^[1] Valerius' is the only version of the phrase that survives from antiquity. In the modern era, it was paraphrased as Noli turbare circulos meos and then translated to Katharevousa Greek as "μὴ μου τοὺς κύκλους τάραττε!" (Mē mou tous kuklous taratte!).^[1]

References