Memento Mori: Ancient Roman Generals used to have a slave whose job was to remind them that one day they will die!

The expression “memento mori” is Latin for “remember that you will die.” This is thought to originate from ancient Rome when a Roman general was celebrating a victory in the streets. The story goes that standing behind him was a slave tasked with reminding the general of his own mortality.

The slave would do so by saying “memento mori”. This happened as a way to keep the generals from getting too confident. They needed to be reminded that although he was at his peak then, he could fall the next day.

This wasn’t the only use of the expression throughout history. The meaning changed slightly when it started popping up in religious works throughout the Middle Ages. Instead of being a reminder of everything you had to lose, it serves to emphasize the emptiness and fleetingness of earthly desires. To them it was the afterlife that mattered, and the things you have on Earth are not worth much in the end.

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