Walsh\u27s Handy-Book of Literary Curiosities (Lippincott, 1892) relates the more-or-less apocryphal story of the soldier who asked an oracle if it were safe to go off to war. He chose to interpret the oracle\u27s reply (Ibis redibis no moreiris in bello) with a comma after redibis which, translated, means You will go, you will return, you will not die in battle: but as he lay dying on the battlefield he realized that the message could instead be read with the comma after non: You will go, you will return not, you will die in battle
