лавры не дают покоя

• ЛАВРЫ чьи, кого НЕ ДАЮТ СПАТЬ <ПОКОЯ> кому{{}}

[VPsubj; pres or past]

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⇒ s.o. experiences envy at another's success:

- лавры X-a Y-y спать не дают{{}}≈ the thought of X's success is keeping Y awake nights (at night);

- Y can't stand the thought of X's success;

- the thought that X is successful (has won etc) is eating (chewing) Y up (inside).

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← Apparently, a modified loan translation from Latin or Greek. The Athenian statesman Themistocles (5277-460? B.C.) supposedly said, after Miltiades's brilliant victory over the Persians in the Battle of Marathon (490 B.C.), that he was "kept awake by the trophies of Miltiades" (Plutarch, Life of Themistocles, III, and Cicero, Tusculan Disputations, IV, 19 etc). Occasionally used in the form "Лавры Мильтиада не дают спать".