homo homini lupus

The Latin maxim Homo homini lupus is a quote of a Roman comic poet Plautus Titus Maccius (ca. 254-184 BC).

In the original text of Plautus lupus is the front:

Translation:

The utterance by the English political theorist and philosopher Thomas Hobbes was known. Again and again, it is claimed, this saying came from his major work Leviathan. Instead, however, the passage comes from the dedication of the work De Cive, Hobbes aimed to William Cavendish. He uses homini Homo lupus as a description for the pre-state natural state of man. Less known, but central to understanding Hobbes ' relativization of the sentence: He writes that it was " both sets true: the man is a god to man, and that man is a wolf to man; that, if the citizens among themselves, this, if one compares the states themselves. "

Known today is mainly taken out of context meaning "Man is a wolf to man " so freely translated: " The person behaves inhumanely towards his fellow man. "

Stylistically, the sentence contains a Polyptoton and alliteration.