Nullius in verba and cited elsewhere. Nullius in verba The Royal Society website explains the motto thus: It is an expression of the determination of Fellows to withstand the domination of authority and to verify all statements by an appeal to facts determined by experiment. The phrase came from Horace's "Epistle" to his benefactor Maecenas, where he claims not to be devoted to any particular sect but is rather an eclectic by nature. These are the words, forming two hexameters in the original context: The minor planet known as 11059 Nulliusinverba in the asteroid belt is named after the expression. The phrase is
Terra nullius who claims that in the 15th and 16th century, European writers adopted the "res nullius" concept for territorial conquest. Frost writes: Historians debate whether "first discovery and effective occupation" was applied to territory inhabited by indigenous people that European empires sought to acquire or not. According to Frost: On the other side of the debate are historians which claim that "terra nullius" is a much younger concept, which did not become formalized before the end of the 19th century. Historian Merete Borch writes: These historians claim instead that territorial conquest was justified from natural law — that which has no