Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? is a Latin phrase from the Roman poet Juvenal, which is literally translated as "Who will guard the guards themselves?" Also sometimes rendered as "Who watches the watchmen?", the phrase has other idiomatic translations and adaptations such as "Who will guard the guards?".

Contents

• 1 History
• 2 Usage
• 3 Origin
• 4 Popular culture
• 5 Notes
• 6 References
• 7 External links

[edit] History

The essential problem was posed by Plato in The Republic, his major work on government and morality. The perfect society as described by Socrates, the main character in this Socratic dialogue, relies on laborers, slaves and tradesmen. The guardian class is to protect the city. The question is put to Socrates, "Who will guard the guardians?" or, "Who will protect us against the protectors?" Plato's answer to this is that they will guard themselves against themselves. We must tell the guardians a "noble lie".^[1] The noble lie will assure them that they are better than those they serve and it is therefore their responsibility to guard and protect those lesser than themselves. We will instill in them a distaste for power or privilege; they will rule because they believe it right, not because they desire it.

[edit] Usage

The saying has since been used to explore the question of where ultimate power should reside, or alternately, the problem of ultimate power. Some forms of government attempt to solve this problem through separation of powers (the government of the United States is one example). As long as the "watchers" are a small and potentially corruptible group, the question asked is a sort of paradox, and perhaps an example of infinite regress.

The saying has been used by Anarchists and libertarians to point out that there should not be a monopoly on violence in a geographical area. Any form of separation of powers is an example of infinite regression. The solution proposed by right-libertarianism is an anarcho-capitalist society based on voluntaryism or the non-aggression principle.

[edit] Origin

The phrase, as it is normally quoted in Latin, comes from the Satires of Juvenal, the 1st/2nd century Roman satirist. Although in its modern usage the phrase has universal, timeless applications to concepts such as tyrannical governments and uncontrollably oppressive dictatorships, in context within Juvenal's poem it refers to the impossibility of enforcing moral behaviour on women when the enforcers (custodes) are corruptible (Satire 6.346–348):

audio quid ueteres olim moneatis amici,
"pone seram, cohibe." sed quis custodiet ipsos—
custodes? cauta est et ab illis incipit uxor.

I hear always the admonishment of my friends:
"Bolt her in, constrain her!" But who will guard
the guardians? The wife plans ahead and begins with them!.

However, modern editors regard these three lines as an interpolation inserted into the text. In 1899 an undergraduate student at Oxford, E.O. Winstedt, discovered a manuscript (now known as O, for Oxoniensis) containing 34 lines which some believe to have been omitted from other texts of Juvenal's poem.^[2] The debate on this manuscript is ongoing, but even if the poem is not by Juvenal, it is likely that it preserves the original context of the phrase.^[3] If so, the original context is as follows (O 29–33):

… noui
consilia et ueteres quaecumque monetis amici,
"pone seram, cohibes." sed quis custodiet ipsos—
custodes qui nunc lasciuae furta puellae
hac mercede silent? crimen commune tacetur.

… I know
the plan that my friends always advise me to adopt:
"Bolt her in, constrain her!" But who can watch
the watchmen? They keep quiet about the girl's
secrets and get her as their payment; everyone hushes it up.

[edit] Popular culture

The question "Who watches the Watchmen?" frequently appears in Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' graphic novel Watchmen, though the phrase is never seen in any one place in its entirety.^[4] Moore stated in an interview that the title of the series related directly to this question, although at the time of the interview Moore did not know where the sentence originated.^[5]

An episode of the cartoon television series The Simpsons refers to this philosophical question. In episode 1F09, "Homer the Vigilante", when Homer is talking about having abused his vigilante powers, his eldest daughter Lisa asks, "If you're the police, who will police the police?" Homer's somewhat ignorant response is, "I don't know. Coast guard?"^[6]

It appears frequently in Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels, usually heard from Sir Samuel Vimes, Commander of the City Watch. He answers it in Thud!, though very briefly, with the line "I do." When asked who watches over him, he follows it up with "I do, too". It also appears in Feet of Clay and I Shall Wear Midnight.

In the 1993 version of The Untouchables the phrase is uttered by Agent Malone in the episode where illegal tactics are employed against the mob at the behest of business and civic leaders. Agent Ness answers "The people will."

In the Robert A. Heinlein novel Space Cadet, the phrase is the motto of the interplanetary peacekeeping force, The Patrol.

A variant of the phrase, "Who Watches the Watchers" was used as the title of an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, although the theme of the episode dealt more with superstition than with the dangers inherent in a group holding ultimate power.

In the book Digital Fortress by Dan Brown, the phrase is used many times by Ensei Tankado who is angered by the NSA's ability to look at emails without alerting the public.

The phrase "Who will babysit the babysitters?" is heard in the song The Power of Lard by the band Lard.

In the 'Divided We Fall' episode of Justice League Unlimited, Batman states 'Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?' to Green Arrow who replies 'Who guards the guardians? We've got it covered'.

[edit] Notes

1. ^ Plato (2008) [c. 380 BC]. The Republic. Benjamin Jowett, transl; EBook produced by Sue Asscher and David Widger. Project Gutenberg. http://www.gutenberg.org/files/1497/1497-h/1497-h.htm. "How then may we devise one of those needful falsehoods of which we lately spoke — just one royal lie which may deceive the rulers, if that be possible, and at any rate the rest of the city?" 
2. ^ E.O. Winstedt 1899, "A Bodleian MS of Juvenal", Classical Review 13: 201–205.
3. ^ Recently J.D. Sosin 2000, "Ausonius' Juvenal and the Winstedt fragment", Classical Philology 95.2: 199–206 has argued for an early date for the poem.
4. ^ Atkinson, Doug. "The Annotated Watchmen". http://www.capnwacky.com/rj/watchmen/chapter1.html.
5. ^ Plowright, Frank. "Preview: Watchmen". Amazing Heroes. June 15, 1986.
6. ^ [1F09] Homer the Vigilante

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Satire VI in Latin, at The Latin Library
• Satire VI in English (translation by G.G. Ramsay) at the Internet Ancient History Sourcebook