novus ordo seclorum

Latin.

1. a new order of the ages (is born): motto on the reverse of the great seal of the United States (adapted from Vergil’s Eclogues IV:5).

on the Great Seal of the United States of America, apparently an allusion to line 5 of Virgil’s “Eclogue IV,” in an 18c. edition: Magnus ab integro seclorum nascitur ordo “The great series of ages begins anew.” The seal’s designer, Charles Thomson, wrote that the words “signify the beginnings of the New American Era.” (see Annuit Coeptis).