The proverbial saying ‘Rome wasn’t built in a day’ suggests that a complex task or great achievement takes time and effort and should not be rushed.

The earliest known version of this expression is found in the collection of medieval French poems Li Proverbe au Vilain, which was published around 1190:

Rome ne fu[t] pas faite toute en un jour

Rome wasn’t built in a day.The expression is first found in English in Richard Taverner’s translation from the Latin of Erasmus’s Prouerbes, 1545:

Ye may use this prouerbe when ye wol signifie that one daye… is not ynoughe for… acheuinge… a great matter… Rome was not buylt in one day.

John Heywood’s A Dialogue Conteinyng the Nomber in Effect of all the Prouerbes in the Englishe Tongue, was published within a few months and contained the same proveb:

Rome was not bylt on a daie (quoth he) & yet stood Tyll it was fynysht, as some saie, full fayre.