“I came, I saw, I conquered.”
— gaius julius_caesar
Veni, vidi, vici. Caesar reportedly wrote this to the Roman Senate in 47 BC after his rapid victory over Pharnaces II of Pontus at the Battle of Zela. The phrase became one of the most famous three-word sentences in any language.
I was born into a patrician family that claimed descent from Venus but had no real power left. My father died when I was fifteen. The dictator Sulla wanted me dead because of my family connections to his enemies. I refused to divorce my wife when he ordered it and had to hide in the countryside, moving every night. I bribed my way into priesthoods, borrowed enormous sums to fund a political career, and gambled everything on military command in Gaul. Nine years of war later, I had conquered territory the size of France, killed or enslaved over a million people, and built an army more loyal to me than to Rome. When the Senate ordered me to disband my legions, I crossed the Rubicon with one legion instead. The rest is not metaphor.