V3TEESVeni, vidi, vici

Historical military-leader graphic tees

VeniVidiVici

I came, I saw, I conquered.

Wear the Legacy of Legends.

Enter the lineup

The lineup

Nine designs

Fifteenth-century miniature of Joan of Arc in plate armor against a gold ground, holding a sword and a banner lettered in French, Je suis venu, j'ai vu, j'ai vaincu.

No. 01France

Joan of Arc

c. 1412–1431

Marble statue of Julius Caesar by Nicolas Coustou, wearing a laurel crown, cuirass, and cloak, one hand on a shield, with the words Veni, Vidi, Vici above the figure.

No. 02Rome

Julius Caesar

100–44 BCE

Lionel Royer's 1899 painting of Vercingetorix on a pale horse throwing down his arms before Julius Caesar, who sits armed among Roman soldiers after the siege of Alesia.

No. 03Gaul

Vercingetorix

died 46 BCE

Detail of the Alexander Mosaic: Alexander the Great on horseback facing the Persian king Darius III in his chariot, with the phrase I came, I saw, I conquered in Greek and English.

No. 04Macedon

Alexander the Great

356–323 BCE

Traditional Chinese portrait of Sun Tzu, a bearded man in pale robes and a black cap, with the name Sun Tzu lettered above him.

No. 05China

Sun Tzu

Spring and Autumn period

Modern illustration of Oda Nobunaga in a crested samurai helmet and armor against a red disc, with the Japanese characters for his name and the words The Demon King.

No. 06Japan

Oda Nobunaga

1534–1582

Traditional formal portrait of Tokugawa Ieyasu seated in black court dress and a tall cap, with a gold cloud border and a Japanese sentence meaning I came, I saw, I conquered.

No. 07Japan

Tokugawa Ieyasu

1543–1616

Monochrome illustration of Shaka, king of the Zulu, standing with a tall cowhide shield and a spear, labeled Shaka Zulu.

No. 08Zulu Kingdom

Shaka

c. 1787–1828

Codex-style illustration of the Mexica god Huitzilopochtli, with a feathered hummingbird headdress, a round shield, and weapons, his name lettered above.

No. 09Mexica

Huitzilopochtli

Patron god

The house

A sentence and a shirt

V3Tees prints graphic shirts of historical military leaders. The name is three Latin verbs. After a short campaign at Zela in 47 BCE, Roman writers say Julius Caesar reported the victory as veni, vidi, vici. The shirts take that sentence and, where the design calls for it, set it in the language of the figure: French for Joan of Arc, Greek for Alexander, Japanese for Tokugawa Ieyasu.

The pictures are old. A marble Caesar from the Louvre, the Alexander Mosaic from Pompeii, Lionel Royer's painting of the surrender at Alesia, a fifteenth-century miniature of Joan, traditional portraits from China and Japan, an illustration of Shaka, and a codex-style Huitzilopochtli. Amazon Merch on Demand prints the cloth and ships it. This site is the catalog. Choose a design, then a marketplace, and the order stays with Amazon.

Where it is worn

The same nine figures sell in North America, in Europe, and in Japan. Live listings currently span the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, and Japan. A design is not in every marketplace, and only listings that are actually live are linked.

The readers we have in mind already know these names from books, from the classroom, or from games that stage the same wars. The shirts are also made to be given: a gift for a history reader, a strategy player, or a veteran.

The three verbs

Veni

I came

The decision to move. Caesar at the Rubicon. Alexander at the Hellespont. Joan on the road into Orléans. Each figure in the lineup is someone, or in one case a god, whose story starts when they arrive.

Vidi

I saw

The reading of a field, an enemy, a moment. Sun Tzu's book is this verb at length: know the ground and know the other side before an army is spent. The rest of the lineup is what that looking was for.

Vici

I conquered

The result the phrase boasts about, and the reason these names are still worn. Ieyasu lived to organize the peace. Joan won a coronation and was killed for the way she had done it. Vercingetorix is here because Alesia still needs his name.