View source for Alea iacta est

{{short description|Latin phrase}}
{{Italic title}}
{{redirect|Alea Jacta Est|the WarCry album|Alea Jacta Est (album)|the Ave Mujica EP|Alea Jacta Est (EP)}}
{{Redirect|The die is cast|the Star Trek episode|The Die Is Cast (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine)}}
[[File:Crossing the Rubicon.jpg|thumb|[[Julius Caesar]] is said to have uttered the phrase when leading his army [[crossing the Rubicon|across the river Rubicon]]]]
{{Julius Caesar series}}

{{lang|la|'''Alea iacta est'''}} ("The [[dice|die]]<!--'DIE' IS CORRECT--> is cast") is a variation of a [[Latin]] phrase ({{lang|la|iacta alea est}} {{IPA|la|ˈjakta ˈaːlɛ.a ˈɛs̺t|}}) attributed by [[Suetonius]] to [[Julius Caesar]] on 10{{nbs}}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 [[Caesar's civil war|civil war]] against [[Pompey]] and the [[Optimates]]. The phrase is often used to indicate events that have passed a [[point of no return]].

According to [[Plutarch]], Caesar originally said the line in [[Ancient Greek|Greek]] rather than Latin, as {{lang|grc|ἀνερρίφθω κύβος}} {{transliteration|grc|anerrhī́phthō kýbos}}, literally "let a die be cast", metaphorically "let the game be played". This is a quote from a play by [[Menander]], and Suetonius's Latin translation is slightly misleading, being merely a statement about the inevitability of what is to come, while the Greek original contains a self-encouragement to venture forward. The Latin version is now most commonly cited with the word order changed ({{lang|la|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==
[[File:9BFE00 -roman lead die (FindID 103936) (cropped).jpg|thumb|A Roman die]]

Caesar probably borrowed the phrase from [[Menander]], the famous [[Ancient Greece|Greek]] writer of [[Ancient Greek comedy|comedies]], as the phrase appeared in Menander's lost play {{lang|grc-Latn|Arrephoros}} ({{gloss|[[Arrephoros|The Bearer of Ritual Objects]]}}),{{NoteTag|[[Menander]]'s {{lang|grc-Latn|Arrephoros}} ({{lang|grc|Ἀρρηφόρος}}, {{gloss|[[Arrephoros|The Bearer of Ritual Objects]]}}) was also titled {{lang|grc-Latn|Auletris}} ({{lang|grc|Αὐλητρίς}}, {{gloss|[[wikt:auletris|The Courtesan Flute-Player]]}}).
{{pb}}
Though this play is now lost, the following dialogue from it was preserved in [[Athenaeus|Athenaeus of Naucratis]]'s ''[[Deipnosophistae]]'' (book 13, paragraph 8):
{{vpad|0}}
{{Dialogue|a=A|b=B|a|If you've got any sense, you won't get married<br>
and give up living like this. I'm married<br>
myself—which is why I'm advising you not to do it.
|b|It's all decided; the die's been cast.
|a|Go ahead—and good luck. Because you're going<br>
to throw yourself into a real sea of troubles now,<br>
and not the Libyan or the Aegean sea...,<br>
where less than three ships out of thirty<br>
get wrecked. Not one married man escapes undamaged.}}<ref>{{cite book | author=Athenaeus | translator-first=S. Douglas | translator-last=Olson | title=The Learned Banqueters | volume=VI | series=[[Loeb Classical Library]] | publication-place=Cambridge, MA | publisher=Harvard University Press | year=2010 | page=247 | doi=10.4159/DLCL.atheneus_grammarian-learned_banqueters.2007 | url=https://www.loebclassics.com/view/atheneus_grammarian-learned_banqueters/2007/pb_LCL327.247.xml }}</ref>}} and Caesar was known to have considered him a great playwright.{{NoteTag|Caesar's respect for [[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".<ref name=Casali>{{Cite book|first=Sergio|last=Casali|chapter=Caesar's Poetry in its Context|title=The Cambridge Companion to the Writings of Julius Caesar|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2018|editor-last=Grillo|editor-first=Luca|pages=208–209|editor2-last=Krebs|editor2-first=Christopher B.|doi=10.1017/9781139151160.015}}</ref>}} [[Plutarch]] reports that Caesar quoted these words in Greek:

{{Quotation|{{lang|grc|Ἑλληνιστὶ πρὸς τοὺς παρόντας ἐκβοήσας, «Ἀνερρίφθω κύβος»}}, [{{lang|grc-Latn|anerrhī́phthō kýbos}}] {{lang|grc|διεβίβαζε τὸν στρατόν.}}<ref>Perseus Digital Library [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Plut.+Pomp.+60.2&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A2008.01.0123 Plut. Pomp. 60.2]</ref><br/><br/> 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<ref>See also Plutarch's ''Life of Caesar'' 32.8.4 and ''Sayings of Kings & Emperors'' 206c.</ref>}}

[[Appian]], also writing in Greek, reports a very similar phrase, and states that it was familiar (a well-known saying or quote):
{{Quotation|{{lang|grc|καὶ εἰπὼν οἷά τις ἔνθους ἐπέρα σὺν ὁρμῇ, τὸ κοινὸν τόδε ἐπειπών· «Ὁ κύβος ἀνερρίφθω».}}<br><br>Then speaking like a man inspired, he surged across, uttering the familiar phrase, "Let the die be cast".|[[Appian]], ''The Civil Wars'', 2.35<ref>{{cite book | author=Appian | title=Roman History, Volume IV: Civil Wars, Books 1–2 | translator-first=Brian |translator-last=McGing | series=Loeb Classical Library | publication-place=Cambridge, MA | publisher=Harvard University Press | year=2020 | doi=10.4159/DLCL.appian-roman_history_civil_wars.2020}}</ref>
}}

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

{{Quotation|{{lang|la|Caesar: "...  iacta alea est", inquit.}}<ref>Perseus Digital Library [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0061%3Alife%3Djul.%3Achapter%3D32 Suet. Jul. 32]</ref><br />
Caesar said, "The die is cast".|[[Suetonius]], {{lang|la|[[On the Life of the Caesars|Vita Divi Iuli]]}} (''The Life of the Deified Julius''), 121 AD, paragraph 32}}

In Latin {{lang|la|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 {{lang|la|tesserae}} and the [[long dice|four-sided ones]] (rounded at each end) were known as {{lang|la|tali}}.<ref>{{L&S|alea|ref}}</ref> In Greek a die was {{lang|grc|κύβος}} {{lang|grc-Latn|kybos}}.<ref>{{LSJ|ku/bos|κύβος}}.</ref>

==See also==
{{Portal|Ancient Rome}}
* [[Aleatoricism]]
* [[List of Latin phrases]]

==Notes==
{{NoteFoot}}

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
{{Wiktionary|the die is cast}}
* [http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/suetonius/suet.caesar.html#32 ''Divus Iulius'', paragraph 32] by Suetonius, where the quote is found.
* [https://www.jstor.org/pss/651038 Reference to Augustus playing Alea]

{{Julius Caesar}}

[[Category:Latin quotations]]
[[Category:Quotes by Julius Caesar]]
[[Category:Quotations from military]]