Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

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Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? is a Latin phrase that translates to "Who will guard the guards?" or "Who shall watch the watchers themselves?"

The question was first asked by Plato in the Republic, his great work on government and morality. The perfect society as described by Socrates, the main character of the work, relies on laborers, slaves, and tradesmen. The guardian class is to protect the city. The question is put to Socrates, who will guard the guardians? or, who will protect us against the protectors? Plato's answer to this is: they will guard themselves against themselves. We must tell the guardians a noble lie. The noble lie will inform them that they are better than those they serve and it is, therefore, their responsibility to guard and protect those lesser than themselves. We will instill in them a distaste for power or privilege, they will rule because they believe it right, not because they desire it.

The saying has since been used by many people to ponder the insoluble question of where ultimate power should reside. The answer for the United States was found in the separation of powers. Never give ultimate power to any one group; the executive, legislative, or judicial; have the interests of each compete and conflict. Each group will then find it in its best interest to impede the functioning of the rest and this will keep ultimate power under constant struggle and, thereby, out of any one group's hands. Similarly in the United Kingdom power is split between the executive (the Government as run by the controlling party of the day decided by universal suffrage), the legislative (Parliament, made up of members of many political parties) and the judiciary.

Contents 1 Origin 2 Uses in Pop Culture 3 See also 4 External links 5 References

[edit] Origin

The phrase as it is normally quoted in Latin comes from the Satires of Juvenal, the 1st/2nd century Roman satirist. Although in its modern usage the phrase has universal, timeless applications to concepts such as tyrannical governments and uncontrollably oppressive dictatorships, in Juvenal's poem it is part of a venomous attack on women (Satire 6.346-8):

audio quid ueteres olim moneatis amici, "pone seram, cohibe." sed quis custodiet ipsos custodes? cauta est et ab illis incipit uxor.

I hear always the admonishment of my friends: "Bolt her in, constrain her!" But who will watch the watchmen? The wife plans ahead and begins with them!

However, modern editors regard these three lines as an interpolation inserted into the text. In 1899 an undergraduate student at Oxford, E.O. Winstedt, discovered a manuscript (now known as O, for Oxoniensis) containing 34 lines which some believe to have been omitted from other texts of Juvenal's poem.^[1] The debate on this manuscript is ongoing, but even if the poem is not by Juvenal, it is likely that it preserves the original context of the phrase.^[2] If so, the original context is as follows (O 29-33):

... noui consilia et ueteres quaecumque monetis amici, "pone seram, cohibes." sed quis custodiat ipsos custodes qui nunc lasciuae furta puellae hac mercede silent? crimen commune tacetur.

... I know the plan that my friends always advise me to adopt: "Bolt her in, constrain her!" But who can watch the watchmen? They keep quiet about the girl's secrets and get her as their payment; everyone hushes it up.

[edit] Uses in Pop Culture

• "Who will spy on the spies?" was a line from the second episode of the TV adaptation of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.
• "Who watches the watchers?", the popular translation of "Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?", was used by Alan Moore as the inspiration for the title of his acclaimed comic book series Watchmen, in which the phrase is translated "Who watches the watchmen?"
• "Who Watches the Watchers?" was the title of an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, in which the Enterprise crew must undo the damage done to a primitive culture by a Federation anthropological observation team.
• Dan Brown uses this quote in his Novel Digital Fortress, where the overwelming theme remains "Who Will Guard the Guardians", taking a modern approach to the ethical questions surrouding domestic spying and the National Security Agency.
• Terry Pratchett's Discworld series of novels, especially those that revolve around Samuel Vimes and the Watch, have characters who will ask the question, translated as "But who watches the Watchmen?" Vimes himself will usually answer this with "I, of course!"
• In the Simpsons episode Homer the Vigilante Lisa says to Homer "Dad, don't you see you're abusing your power like all vigilantes? I mean, if you're the police, who will police the police?" to which he responds "I dunno. Coast Guard?"
• In the episode Divided We Fall of Justice League Unlimited, Batman questions Green Arrow "Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?" to which he replies "Who guards the guardsmen? We've got it covered."

[edit] See also

• Watchmen, a comic that derives its title and some motifs from this phrase.
• Digital Fortress, a book by Dan Brown
• Samuel Vimes, a fictional character from Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels. When asked this question in the novel Thud!, Commander Vimes answered "Me!"

[edit] External links

• Satire VI in Latin, at The Latin Library
• Satire VI in English (translation by G.G. Ramsay) at the Internet Ancient History Sourcebook

[edit] References