Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

[Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) or "Quis custodia custodias ipsos?" is a Latin phrase from the Roman poet Juvenal, which literally translates to "Who will guard the guards themselves?", and is variously translated in colloquial English as "Who watches the watchmen?", "Who watches the watchers?", "Who will guard the guardians?", "Who shall watch the watchers?", "Who polices the police?" or other similar translations.

History

The essential problem was posed by Plato in the Republic, his work on government and morality. The perfect society as described by Socrates, the main character of the work (see 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". 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.

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.

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. 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. 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.

In literature and media

• One well-known contemporary interpretation of this concept is found in the graphic novel Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, which takes its name from the phrase "Who watches the Watchmen?"
• In Space Cadet by Robert A. Heinlein, it is the motto of the The Patrol (a military organization).
• In The Code of the Woosters by P.G. Wodehouse, Bertie Wooster contributes this Latin phrase and its translation during a conversation about curate 'Stinker' Pinker's pinching of constable Oates's helmet. Here, the phrase takes on the meaning "Who will protect the protectors?"
• Dan Brown's Digital Fortress discusses the intricate balance between national security and personal privacy: who has the right to peek in others' emails in the name of national security - Who will guard them?
• The novel Thud! by Terry Pratchett and various other novels by the same author; it is a phrase often used by Samuel Vimes and the other members of the Ankh Morpork city watch. In Thud!, the question is answered when a theoretical watchman in Sam Vimes' consciousness says that he watches him, similar to a conscience. Sam has created a watcher in his own mind who watches him, and therefore is watching himself. The watchman himself watches the watchmen. See paradox and turtles all the way down.
• An episode of The Simpsons, "Homer the Vigilante", in which Lisa asks Homer this. His response: "I dunno. Coast Guard?"
• An episode of the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation is titled "Who Watches the Watchers".
• An episode of Justice League Unlimited concluding the Project Cadmus story-arc that garnered a lot of distrust for the League by humanity, Batman quietly posed the question to Green Arrow regarding the more powerful members of the League such as Superman. Green Arrow responded with "We got it covered."
• William Easterly in The White Man's Burden approximates it as, "Why would you trust a government official any more than you would a shoplifting serial killer?"

See also

• Infinite regress

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