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Alea iacta est

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A Roman die, made from lead

Alea iacta est ("The die is cast") is a variation of a Latin phrase (iacta alea est [ˈjakta ˈaːlɛ.a ˈɛs̺t]) attributed by Suetonius to Julius Caesar on 10 January 49 BC, as he led his army across the Rubicon river in Northern Italy, in defiance of the Roman Senate and beginning a long civil war against Pompey and the Optimates. The phrase is often used to indicate events that have passed a point of no return.

The phrase was a quote from a play by Menander, and according to Plutarch, Caesar originally said the line in Greek rather than Latin. The Latin version is now most commonly cited with the word order changed (Alea iacta est), and it is used both in this form, and in translation in many languages. The same event inspired another related idiom, "crossing the Rubicon".

Meaning and forms

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The motto of the Hall family from Shackerstone reads jacta est alea.

Caesar was said to have borrowed the phrase from Menander, the famous Greek writer of comedies, whom he considered a great playwright.[note 1][1] The phrase appears in the lost play Arrephoros, as quoted in Deipnosophistae.[note 2] Plutarch reports that these words were said in Greek:

Ἑλληνιστὶ πρὸς τοὺς παρόντας ἐκβοήσας, «Ἀνερρίφθω κύβος», [anerrhī́phthō kýbos] διεβίβαζε τὸν στρατόν.[3]

He [Caesar] declared in Greek with loud voice to those who were present "Let a die be cast" and led the army across.

— Plutarch, Life of Pompey, 60.2.9[4]

Appian, also writing in Greek, reports a very similar phrase:

καὶ εἰπὼν οἷά τις ἔνθους ἐπέρα σὺν ὁρμῇ, τὸ κοινὸν τόδε ἐπειπών· «Ὁ κύβος ἀνερρίφθω».

Then speaking like a man inspired, he surged across, uttering the familiar phrase, "Let the die be cast".

— Appian, The Civil Wars, 2.35[5]

Suetonius, a contemporary of Plutarch and Appian, writing in Latin, has the quote in Latin instead of Greek:

Caesar: "... iacta alea est", inquit.[6]
Caesar said, "The die has been cast".

— Suetonius, Vita Divi Iuli (The Life of the Deified Julius), 121 AD, paragraph 32

Lewis and Short,[7] citing Casaubon and Ruhnk, suggest that the text of Suetonius should read iacta alea esto (reading the third-person singular future imperative esto instead of the present one est), which they translate as "Let the die be cast!", or "Let the game be ventured!". This matches Plutarch's use of third-person singular perfect middle/passive imperative of the verb ἀναρρίπτω,[8] i.e. ἀνερρίφθω κύβος (anerrhī́phthō kýbos, pronounced [aner̥ːǐːpʰtʰɔː kýbos]).

In Latin alea refers to a game with dice and, more generally, a game of hazard or chance. Dice were common in Roman times and were usually cast three at a time. There were two kinds. The six-sided dice were known in Latin as tesserae and the four-sided ones (rounded at each end) were known as tali.[9] In Greek a die was κύβος kybos.[10]

See also

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Notes

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  1. ^ Caesar's admiration of Menander is known from one of Caesar's poems, which was preserved in Suetonius's The Twelve Caesars. In the poem, he praises the playwright Terence, saying that he is "ranked with the highest", but despite this is only a "half-sized Menander".[1]
  2. ^ Athenaeus of Naucratis' Deipnosophistae (book 13, paragraph 8) quotes a dialogue in Menander's Arrephoros (Ἀρρηφόρος, 'The Bearer of Ritual Objects'; also titled Auletris 'The Female Flute-Player'):

    A: You will not marry if you're in your senses
    When you have left this life. For I myself
    Did marry; so I recommend you not to.
    B: The matter is decided—the die is cast.
    A: Go on then. I do wish you then well over it;
    But you are taking arms, with no good reason,
    Against a sea of troubles. In the waves
    Of the deep Libyan or Ægean sea
    Scarce three of thirty ships are lost or wreck'd
    But scarcely one poor husband 'scapes at all.

    Translation by Charles Duke Yonge (1854).[2]

References

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  1. ^ a b Casali, Sergio (2018). "Caesar's Poetry in its Context". In Grillo, Luca; Krebs, Christopher B. (eds.). The Cambridge Companion to the Writings of Julius Caesar. Cambridge University Press. pp. 208–209. doi:10.1017/9781139151160.015.
  2. ^ The Deipnosophists; or, Banquet of the Learned. Vol. 3. Translated by Yonge, Charles Duke. London: Henry G. Bohn. 1854. p. 895.
  3. ^ Perseus Digital Library Plut. Pomp. 60.2
  4. ^ See also Plutarch's Life of Caesar 32.8.4 and Sayings of Kings & Emperors 206c.
  5. ^ Appian (2020). Roman History, Volume IV: Civil Wars, Books 1–2. Loeb Classical Library. Translated by McGing, Brian. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. doi:10.4159/DLCL.appian-roman_history_civil_wars.2020.
  6. ^ Perseus Digital Library Suet. Jul. 32
  7. ^ alea. Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short. A Latin Dictionary on Perseus Project.
  8. ^ ἀναρρίπτω. Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; A Greek–English Lexicon at the Perseus Project.
  9. ^ alea. Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short. A Latin Dictionary on Perseus Project.
  10. ^ κύβος.
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