Expert: Maria - 11/21/2008

Question
Maria,
    I apologize if you've answered this before, I looked through the site and did not see it.  I was wondering if you could give the Latin translation to "The Best Revenge is Living Well."  I'm recently out of colleges and want to get something for some close friends and fraternity brothers engraved with that motto for Christmas and didn't want to get it wrong :-)

Thank you for your help!
Benjamin

Answer
Hello,

first of all you don't need to apologize as I've not answered such a question before.

So, "The Best Revenge is Living Well", i.e. the quote from George Herbert, early seventeenth century Welsh poet, orator and priest,  translates as follows:

-“Bene vivere quam optima est ultio”.


Best regards,
Maria
________________________________________
Note that:

-The Best = QUAM OPTIMA (superlative in the nominative feminine agreed with ULTIO)

-Revenge = ULTIO (nominative, feminine noun, 3rd.declension).
In classical Latin there is also the feminine noun VINDICTA, 1st. declension, which however is less common.

-is = EST (from SUM, I am)

-Living = VIVERE (infinitive of VIVO, I live)

-Well = BENE (adverb)


As you can see, Latin word order can be different from English.