Veni, vidi, vici

A view from the 2000-year-old historical castle column piece in Zile, Turkey where Julius Caesar said "Veni, vidi, vici". Veni, vidi, vici ( Classical Latin: [ˈweːniː ˈwiːdiː ˈwiːkiː], Ecclesiastical Latin: [ˈveːni ˈviːd̪i ˈviːt͡ʃi]; "I came; I saw; I conquered") is a Latin phrase used to refer to a swift, conclusive victory. The phrase is popularly attributed to Julius Caesar who, according to Appian, used the phrase in a letter to the Roman Senate around 47 BC after he had achieved a quick victory in his short war against Pharnaces II of Pontus at the Battle of Zela (modern-day Zile, Turkey).

The phrase is attributed in Plutarch's Life of Caesar and Suetonius's Lives of the Twelve Caesars: Julius. Plutarch writes that Caesar used it in a report to Amantius, a friend of his in Rome. Suetonius states that Caesar displayed the three words as an inscription during his Pontic triumph.