Roman Proverb

Anonymous Latin proverb is not a person but a modern label used for sayings that survive from ancient Rome without a known author. Many Latin maxims circulated orally, were repeated in speeches, and were copied into school exercises, legal texts, and later medieval manuscripts. Over centuries, compilers gathered these lines into collections of sententiae (brief moral statements) and adages, often without reliable attribution. As a result, numerous widely quoted phrases are credited simply to “Anonymous,” “Latin proverb,” or “Roman saying,” indicating uncertain origin rather than a single writer. Such proverbs reflect shared Roman values—practical wisdom, civic duty, and restraint—and continued to influence European literature, law, and education.