Atque etiam recordatus quondam super cenam, quod nihil cuiquam
toto die praestitisset, memorabilem illam meritoque
laudatam vocem edidit: “Amici, diem perdidi.”
One evening at dinner, realizing that he had done nobody any favour throughout the entire day, he spoke these memorable words: “My friends, I have wasted a day.”
Suetonius on Titus Flavius Vespasianus, in The Twelve Caesars, Robert Graves and Michael Grant, translators (Harmondsworth, 1979), Chapter 8.