Concerning mottoes

[Geoff Withnell]

The Friends of Lazarus Long should like this one. The Withnell family motto is "TANSTAAFL". From "The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress". "There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch". My Dad was a great Heinlein fan, and since taking over as head of the Withnell mob in January, I'm certainly not going to change it. I'm going to work with Don Kimble at www.crestbadges.com to make a family cap badge, with that as the motto, and a hill with a willow tree in the center (Withnell can be rendered from the Welsh as "WillowHill")

[Joseph McMillan]

ROMANI ITE DOMUM!

Not to take "Life of Brian" tooooo seriously, but I've been told that this doesn't quite mean what it's supposed to mean. When Brian said "Romans, go home!" he meant back to Rome, to their own country. But "Romani ite domum" would mean "Romans, go back to your house."

Does "domus" in Latin have the same connotation as "home" in English, of something more than a physical house?

[OKSooner]

Not to take "Life of Brian" tooooo seriously, but I've been told that this doesn't quite mean what it's supposed to mean. When Brian said "Romans, go home!" he meant back to Rome, to their own country. But "Romani ite domum" would mean "Romans, go back to your house."

Does "domus" in Latin have the same connotation as "home" in English, of something more than a physical house?

To the best of my knowledge, it's used to refer mostly to the actual house and also to someone's family or members of their household. I can't recall a Latin author using it in prose for going to a city or in the way we use it in English. That said, there's a good chance that a poet could have used it that I cannot recall now.