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The phrase Novus Ordo Seclorum (Latin: New Order of the Ages), originally a motto of the Renaissance, appears on the reverse of the Great Seal of the United States, first publicly revealed in 1782 and printed on the back of the US dollar bill since 1935. It is often inaccurately thought to mean "New World Order", the Latin translation of which is Novus Ordo Mundi.
The allusion is to the fourth eclogue of Vergil, which contains a passage that reads:
Medieval Christians read in Vergil's poem a prophecy of the coming of Christianity.
"Novus Ordo Seclorum" is also the name of a high quality encryption
program in Cryptonomicon, a novel by Neal
Stephenson.
Great Seal Mottoes
Annuit Coeptis
In the zenith of an unfinished pyramid on the reverse side of the Great Seal is "an Eye in a triangle, surrounded with a glory... Over the Eye these words 'Annuit Coeptis'."
This Latin phrase has been traced to Virgil, the renowned Roman poet who lived in the first century B.C. His epic masterpiece, the Aeneid, contains the sentence: "Jupiter omnipotens, audacibus annue coeptis." (All-powerful Jupiter, favor [my] daring undertakings.)
Also, in Virgil's Georgics is: "Da facilem cursum, atque audacibus annue coeptis." (Give [me] an easy course, and favor [my] daring undertakings.)
Charles Thomson changed the imperative annue to annuit, the third person form of this verb meaning to favor or approve (in either the present tense or the present perfect tense). Coeptis means undertakings or endeavors.
In the motto Annuit Coeptis, the subject of the verb must be supplied, (and the translator must also choose the tense). Thomson explained:
"The pyramid signifies Strength and Duration: the Eye over it & the Motto allude to the many signal interpositions of providence in favour of the American cause."
The Eye is therefore the
missing subject, and the motto translates as:
"It (the eye of Providence) is favorable to our undertakings."
Or, as it is now translated by the U.S. State Department:
"He (God) has favored our undertakings."
NOTE: Annuit does not mean "to announce" (annuntio).
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