Romani ite domum

Romani ite domum on a reconstruction of a Roman settlement in Britain, in the Hull and East Riding Museum

"Romani ite domum" (Romans go home) is the corrected Latin phrase for the graffito "Romanes eunt domus" from a scene in the film Monty Python's Life of Brian.

Life of Brian

The scene features John Cleese as a centurion and Graham Chapman as Brian, at that stage a would-be member of the revolutionary group the "People's Front of Judea". To prove himself worthy to be a member of the group, Brian has to daub the anti-Roman slogan "Romans go home" on the walls of Governor Pontius Pilate's palace in Jerusalem, under cover of darkness, written in Latin so the Romans can understand it. He completes the phrase Romanes eunt domus when he is caught by two centurions. Brian is terrified and clearly expects to be killed on the spot. However, upon reading Brian's message and realising that its spelling and grammar are atrocious, the centurion instead angrily corrects Brian's mistakes, as what he has written translates to "Romanes they go the house." He forces Brian to use the proper imperative and accusative cases and write the correct phrase, Romani ite domum, 100 times. Brian does so, covering nearly every surface of the plaza with the graffiti. When he does complete the task in the following morning, the centurion guarding him tells him "don't do it again" and leaves with his partner. Just as they leave, three soldiers come round the corner and see the graffiti. Brian realises his position and races off chased by the soldiers.

In subsequent scenes, various Roman soldiers can be seen erasing the graffiti to censor the seditious message.

Case of domus

The exchange on the case of domus concludes:

Centurion: " 'Domus'? Nominative? 'Go home', this is motion towards, isn't it, boy?"
Brian: "Dative?"
[Centurion draws his sword and holds it to Brian's throat ]
Brian: "Ahh! No, not the dative, not the dative, sir. No, the, accusative, accusative, 'ad domum', sir!"
Centurion: "Except that 'domus' takes the ...?"
Brian: "The locative, sir!"
Centurion: "Which is ...?!"
Brian: "'Domum'."

Students of Latin often note that domi is the locative of domus in literary classical Latin. The (allative) case construction used in the final formulation is accusative of motion towards.[1]

References

  1. ↑ The Latin Dictionary: domus

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