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“Rome does not pay traitors.” The phrase –in Latin, “Roma traditoribus non praemiat”–, which today is used as a warning to anyone who may harbor intentions to commit treason that they will not get rewarded for it, comes from a popular tradition of uncertain origin. According to this, it was pronounced by the proconsul Quinto Servilio Cepión in the year 139 BC when three Hispanics –Audax, Ditalcos and Minuros– tried to collect the reward that the Roman had promised them if they assassinated his chief, the Lusitanian leader Viriato. However, it does not appear in the classical sources, although the historical fact was narrated by some Roman chroniclers, such as Diodorus, Orosio and Apiano. The closest thing to this phrase is a passage from the chronicle of the latter, which ensures that the proconsul “paid the Hispanic traitors, but refused to satisfy his other demands.”
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“The sun rises over Antequera…”. This saying is used to express uncertainty about the result of an action, but determination to carry it out despite it. There are several hypotheses about its origin. Some place it in the War of Granada (1482-1492). According to José María Iribarren, it comes from the phrase “The sun rises through Antequera and sets wherever it wants”, exclaimed in the camp of the Catholic Monarchs. Given that Antequera (Málaga) is to the west of Granada, the phrase would have had an ironic meaning. For its part, the Dictionary of Current Spanish, by Manuel Seco, Olimpia Andrés and Gabino Ramos, attributes its origin to a legend according to which Ferdinand I of Aragon (1380-1416), who conquered Antequera but who was previously undecided about whether to attack her or not, a young woman appeared to her and told her: “The sun rises over Antequera and whatever God wants.”
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“Paris is well worth a mass.” This phrase –in French, “Paris vaut bien une messe”–, probably apocryphal, is attributed to Henry of Bourbon or of Navarre, the Huguenot (Protestant) pretender to the throne of France who chose to convert to Catholicism in order to reign ( his ordinal as King of France is Henry IV; in the image illustrating this article, Rubens’ painting Triumphal Entry of Henry IV in Paris). Since then, it has been used in the sense that it is convenient to establish priorities for practical purposes: if it is useful to give up something, even if it is very valuable, to obtain what you really want, it must be done so. The context of this cynical affirmation is the Wars of Religion that devastated France in the 16th century, whose most famous milestone was the massacre of Saint Bartholomew (24 August 1572) after which Henry renounced his faith and supposedly said the phrase of yore
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“More was lost in Cuba…”. It is a saying that is used to minimize the severity of a problem or setback. It was born, how could it be otherwise, in 1898, after the war between the United States and Spain for the control of the Caribbean island, and its original form was “More was lost in Cuba and they came singing”, or also “More got lost in Cuba and came back whistling”. In that conflict, the United States destroyed the entire Spanish fleet in the Caribbean and in Manila; the contest ended with the unmitigated defeat of Spain, which had to cede the territories of Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Philippines, among others, to the victor. And, according to a popular legend, the few Spanish survivors of the disaster returned to their homeland singing, happy to have been saved. That was the origin of the phrase.