Demonstrating just how learned, curious, and, well, nerdy the Corner audience can be, I received a large number of inquiries, comments, and criticisms about yesterday’s mention of the phrase Nemo me impune lacessit. It is the motto of the Scottish Order of the Thistle, of several Scottish military units, and of Scots more generally. It can be found on old Scottish coins, and is also popular among Scots-Irish communities in America and elsewhere. That’s where I first encountered it.

What I got wrong, apparently, was attributing it to Julius Caesar. My correspondents, including several historians and classicists, set me straight. That’ll teach me to write from memory alone — and to write about Latin phrases at all. I studied Greek, not Latin.

Anyway, as a Carolinian with the middle name of McDonald, I’ll just continue to consider it a highfalutin way of saying “Don’t Tread on Me.”