Thursday, May 7, 2020 –
In case you have not figured it out, I am a total nerd. Since yesterday’s post centered around a Latin phrase close to the Virginia state motto—Sic semper tyrannis—I thought it would be fun to dig up some history on this fairly famous phrase. Turns out it is a weird, bloody, interconnected history pile of nuttiness.
Supposedly, the original phrase from way back sometime in history is, “sic semper evello mortem tyrannis,” which means, “thus always I bring death to tyrants.” So far, I have not confirmed that this “fuller” phrase was ever used by anyone. Besides, it is a bit of a mouthful if you are trying to get your angry point across.
Jumping in time to March 15, 44 BCE and the Ides of March, we find Marcus Junius Brutus, a Roman Senator, supposedly said it after the assassination of Julius Caesar. However, Plutarch indicates that Brutus probably never said anything, and if he did, nobody heard him.
Caesar thus done to death, the senators, although Brutus came forward as if to say something about what had been done, would not wait to hear him, but burst out of doors and fled, thus filling the people with confusion and helpless fear…1
People later argue that the Bard (AKA Shakespeare) used this as a line in Julius Caesar back in 1599, but it just is not there…at all…I mean it seriously does not exist in the play. The closest we get is when Cinna says the line, “Liberty! Freedom! Tyranny is dead!” immediately after Caesar’s death in Act III, Scene I. There are a few other close calls, like when a random citizen says, “this Caesar was a tyrant” in Act III, Scene II, and when Cato declares himself “a foe to tyrants” at the beginning of Act V, Scene IV.
J.D. Snider argues in his article, The Tragedy of Julius Caesar by Shakespeare, that the Bard purposely left this famous line out:
Hence, it is that most people think that Brutus is the real hero of the play, and that it is wrongly named. But this was certainly not Shakespeare’s design, for it was very easy to construct a drama in which Brutus should appear as triumphant, by having it terminate at the assassination of Caesar with a grand flourish of daggers, frantic proclamations of liberty, and ‘sic semper tyrannis.’ Shakespeare, however, takes special pains not to do any such thing, but to show the triumph of Caesar’s thought in the destruction of the conspirators.2
Fast forward to July 5, 1776 and the Virginia Convention. On this date, the independent Commonwealth of Virginia adopted an ordinance to create a new seal. George Wythe was commissioned to design the two-sided seal, and they were subsequently engraved in Paris. For the most part, the seal of Virginia has remained unchanged. In 1903 the General Assembly passed a law essentially returning it to the original language and form of the 1776 Convention. It is described in the current Code of Virginia under § 1-500 – The great seal.
The great seal of the Commonwealth shall consist of two metallic discs, two and one-fourth inches in diameter, with an ornamental border one fourth of an inch wide, with such words and figures engraved as follows: On the obverse, Virtus, the genius of the Commonwealth, dressed as an Amazon, resting on a spear in her right hand, point downward, touching the earth; and holding in her left hand, a sheathed sword, or parazonium, pointing upward; her head erect and face upturned; her left foot on the form of Tyranny represented by the prostrate body of a man, with his head to her left, his fallen crown nearby, a broken chain in his left hand, and a scourge in his right. Above the group and within the border conforming therewith, shall be the word “Virginia,” and, in the space below, on a curved line, shall be the motto, “Sic Semper Tyrannis.” On the reverse, shall be placed a group consisting of Libertas, holding a wand and pileus in her right hand; on her right, Aeternitas, with a globe and phoenix in her right hand; on the left of Libertas, Ceres, with a cornucopia in her left hand, and an ear of wheat in her right; over this device, in a curved line, the word “Perseverando.”3
Likewise, our state seal appears on our current flag. Originally, the General Assembly did not formally authorize or approve a state flag. However, the emblem and sic semper tyrannis began appearing on flags in the early 19th century. It was not until April 30, 1861 at the Virginia Convention that an ordinance was adopted making the flag official.
There was a brief period before and during the Civil War that abolitionists attempted to claim (or reclaim) sic semper tyrannis as a Union motto.
There was a (now lost) Currier and Ives print from around 1863 portraying the abolitionist John Brown on his way to execution. Brown was drawn as a Christ-like figure surrounded by a newly adopted Virginia flag sporting the state motto. Brown advocated armed insurrection to overthrow slavery rather than a more passive approach. He was subsequently hanged on December 2, 1859 in Charles Town Virginia (located today in West Virginia). As an interesting side, John Wilkes Booth (more on him in a moment…) attended Brown’s execution by wearing a borrowed militia uniform in order to gain admission.
Another Union use was by the 22nd United States Colored Infantry (22ND USCI). Active in the Civil War from 1864 – 1865, the 22ND USCI adopted a deep-blue flag depicting an African Union soldier bayoneting a Confederate soldier with the words “sic semper tyrannis” emblazoned on a red sash above. Of note, they also participated in President Lincoln’s funeral procession after John Wilkes Booth assassinated him.
Speaking of Booth…On April 15, 1865, John Wilkes Booth wrote in his diary that he shouted “sic semper tyrannis” after assassinating President Abraham Lincoln in Ford’s Theater. Random side note: April 14, 1865 was also Good Friday…the bloodiest day of all.
There are diverging theories as to why Booth claims to have shouted this:
One theory is that as an actor who recently starred as Mark Antony is Shakespeare’s Julius Ceasar, Booth was particularly enamored with the bloody end of Caesar, a tyrant. He truly believed that Brutus’ act was a honorable one, and wanted to be remembered as a new Brutus. However, as discussed earlier, that line was never actually said in Shakespeare’s play. This argument centers on Booth “knowing” that Brutus said this line way back in 44 BCE. Alas, again, this was simply not the case according to Plutarch. So, for this to bucket to hold water, it really hinges on Booth perpetuating an urban myth of what Brutus might have said centuries earlier.
The other theory is that John Wilkes Booth was paying homage to the motto of Virginia because it was the seat of the Confederacy. This rings truer, but it is more likely that Booth, as a Marylander, was harkening back to James Ryder Randall’s song, “Maryland! My Maryland.”4 In verse VI (of IX!!), the beginning part of the phrase is used:
Dear Mother! burst the tyrant’s chain,
Maryland!
Virginia should not call in vain,
Maryland!
She meets her sisters on the plain—
“Sic semper!” ’tis the proud refrain
That baffles minions back amain,
Maryland! My Maryland!
Written in 1861, “Maryland! My Maryland” was written as a poem to express Randall’s outrage over Union soldiers being marched through Baltimore and his Confederate sympathies. It was later set to the tune of “Lauriger Horatius” (more commonly known as “O, Tannenbaum”) and became a localized battle cry of Confederate soldiers. Oddly enough, it was adopted as the state song of Maryland in 1939.
The last and strange connection in this mess is Timothy McVeigh. I kid you not, we are ending with a domestic terrorist. Specifically, his arrest and booking photo. On April 19, 1995, McVeigh perpetrated the horrific act of bombing the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Arrested later that day, Timothy McVeigh’s booking photo shows him sporting a shirt with a faux wanted poster photo of Abraham Lincoln above the words “SIC SEMPER TYRANNIS” in all caps.
And that, dear readers, is the brief, bloody, weird history surrounding the Virginia state motto. I am kind of scared how it will be used next…
Saint John Fisher, pray for us!
Endnotes:
- 1 – Plutarch. Plutarch’s Lives. with an English Translation by. Bernadotte Perrin. Cambridge, MA. Harvard University Press. London. William Heinemann Ltd. 1919. #67.
- 2 – Snider, J. D. The Tragedy of Julius Caesar by Shakespeare. The Journal of Speculative Philosophy. Vol. 6. 1, Jul. 1872. Shakespeare Online. 20 Nov. 2013. < http://www.shakespeare-online.com/plays/juliuscaesar/juliuscaesarthemes.html >.
- 3 – Code of the State of Virginia, § 1-500. The great seal. <https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title1/chapter5/section1-500/>
- 4 – State Song of Maryland <https://sos.maryland.gov/mdkids/Pages/StateSong.aspx>
