''Ubi panis ibi patria'' is a

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

expression meaning "Where there is bread, there is (my) country" (or home, or homeland). According to J. Hector St. John de Crèvecœur in "What is an American", the third of his ''

Letters from an American Farmer ''Letters from an American Farmer'' is a series of letters written by French American writer J. Hector St. John de Crèvecœur, first published in 1782. The considerably longer title under which it was originally published is ''Letters from an ...

'', this is the motto of all European

immigrants to the United States Immigration has been a major source of population growth and Culture of the United States, cultural change throughout much of the history of the United States. In absolute numbers, the United States has a larger immigrant population than a ...

. It is not clear whether the phrase originates in Crèvecœur's writings or somebody else's. In any case, it is reminiscent in its form of another motto that may have served as a model, ''Ubi bene ibi patria'' ("Homeland is where it (life) is good"; lit. ''where good, there fatherland''). This latter expression in turn reminds of a verse (''Teucer'', fr. 291) of the Roman tragic poet

Marcus Pacuvius Marcus Pacuvius (; 220 – c. 130 BC) was an ancient Roman tragic poet. He is regarded as the greatest of their tragedians prior to Lucius Accius. Biography He was the nephew and pupil of Ennius, by whom Roman tragedy was first raised to a positi ...

(ca. 220–130 BC) quoted by

Cicero Marcus Tullius Cicero ( ; ; 3 January 106 BC – 7 December 43 BC) was a Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, philosopher, and academic skeptic, who tried to uphold optimate principles during the political crises that led to the estab ...

(106–43 BC): ''Patria est ubicumque est bene'' (45 BC, ''

Tusculanae Disputationes The ''Tusculanae Disputationes'' (also ''Tusculanae Quaestiones''; English: ''Tusculan Disputations'') is a series of five books written by Cicero, around 45 BC, attempting to popularise Greek philosophy in Ancient Rome, including Stoicism. It is s ...

'' V, 108).

Jean-Jacques Rousseau Jean-Jacques Rousseau (, ; 28 June 1712 – 2 July 1778) was a Genevan philosopher, writer, and composer. His political philosophy influenced the progress of the Age of Enlightenment throughout Europe, as well as aspects of the French Revolu ...

also alludes to this motto in his 1772 ''

Considerations on the Government of Poland ''Considerations on the Government of Poland'' — also simply ''The Government of Poland'' or, in the original French, ''Considérations sur le gouvernement de Pologne'' (1782) — is an essay by Swiss philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau concerni ...

''.Jean-Jacques Rousseau, ''Considerations on the Government of Poland''
ch. 3

References

Latin mottos Cosmopolitanism {{Latin-vocab-stub

See also

References