Reply #13: John Wilkes Booth shouted it after shooting Abraham Lincoln [View All]

[tocqueville]

Sic semper tyrannis is a Latin phrase meaning "Thus always to tyrants" or "Thus ever be to tyrants". It is the state motto of Virginia in the U.S. (and also that of the USS Virginia). The Seal of the Commonwealth of Virginia shows Virtue, sword in hand, with her foot on the prostrate form of Tyranny, whose crown lies nearby. The Seal was designed by George Wythe, who signed the Declaration of Independence and taught the Law to Thomas Jefferson.

Recommended by George Mason to the Virginia Convention in 1776, the phrase is attributed to Brutus at the assassination of Julius Caesar. According to some witnesses, John Wilkes Booth shouted it after shooting Abraham Lincoln in 1865. In his mug shot following the Oklahoma City bombing, Timothy McVeigh wore a shirt with a picture of Lincoln on it and "Sic Semper Tyrannis" written below.

In The Pilot, an episode of the American sitcom Seinfeld, the character "Crazy" Joe Davola shouts the phrase before attacking the main character, Jerry Seinfeld. The translation is later given, incorrectly, as "Death to tyrants".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sic_Semper_Tyrannis