Sic semper tyrannis

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Great Seal of Virginia with the state motto.
Great Seal of Virginia with the state motto.

Sic semper tyrannis is a Latin phrase meaning "Thus always to tyrants" or "Thus ever it be with tyrants". Recommended by George Mason to the Virginia Convention in 1776, the phrase is attributed to Marcus Brutus at the assassination of Julius Caesar.

It is the state motto of Virginia in the United States (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 United States Declaration of Independence and taught law to Thomas Jefferson. The phrase is also the motto of the U.S. city Allentown, the third largest city in Pennsylvania.

According to some witnesses and an excerpt from John Wilkes Booth's diary, he is said to have shouted it after shooting United States President Abraham Lincoln in 1865.

Timothy McVeigh, famously known as the Oklahoma City bomber, was wearing a T-shirt with the phrase written on it and a picture of Lincoln in reference to Lincoln's assassination when he was arrested April 19, 1995, the day of the terrorist act.[1]

  1. ^ Kilzer, Lou and Kevin Flynn. "Did McVeigh Plan to get Caught, or was he Sloppy?", Denver Rocky Mountain News, 1997-12-19.

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