What does veni divi vici mean?

Answer 1

Do you mean "veni vidi vici"? That was Caesar's famous summary of his defeat of Pharnaces II of Pontus in 47 B.C., and it means "I came, I saw, I conquered."

Veni divi vici is another kettle of fish entirely. It has appeared on the internet as a jocular translation of "I came, I ducked, I conquered", where divi is apparently meant to invoke the English word "dive", but in fact there is no such verb in Latin.

If this were an actual Latin saying, we would have to treat divi as a genitive singular or nominative/vocative plural form of the adjective divus meaning "divine", which could be used as a noun to mean "divine being" or (in the neuter) "sky". It's hard to imagine how it could fit between veni and vici except as a vocative plural masculine noun, which would yield the translation "I came, O divine ones; I conquered."

In many manuscripts there is a term "divi" as in the Traian's column

IMPERATOR • CAESAR • DIVI • NERVAE • FILIVS • MARCVS • VLPIVS • NERVA • TRAIANVS • OPTIMVS • AVGVSTVS • FORTISSIMVS • PRINCEPS • GERMANICVS • DACICVS • PARTHICVS • MAXIMVS.

So DIVI FILIVS = (son of the Divine One).

divi may come from "divine" but may come from "di+vi+di" di = "2", vidi = "see" so divi = "divide" so Veni divi vici can mean "I came, I divide, I conquered." And the term "Divide an Conquer" is latin and very popular!

The origin of the concept for "divine being" is very unclear but the closest is

di-a-me-tron - in greek "divider of my matrix" or "through my matrix" - diameter or diad it is not "The God" but is divine being.The divider of God's matrix - the builder of the universe.

But of course all of this are only a presumptions.The hardest thing is to get the sense implied in any transmitted information by humanly form .