Alea iacta est

Alea iacta est (also alea jacta est, Latin: "The die has been cast") is a Latin phrase attributed by Suetonius (as iacta alea est [ˈjakta ˈaːlɛa ɛst]) to Julius Caesar on January 10, 49 BC as he led his army across the River Rubicon in northern Italy. With this step, he entered Italy at the head of his army in defiance of the Roman Senate and began his long civil war against Pompey and the Optimates.

Meaning and form

The phrase is still used today to mean that events have passed a point of no return, that something inevitable will happen. Caesar was said to have borrowed the phrase from Menander, his favorite Greek writer of comedy. Plutarch reports that these words were said in Greek:

Ἑλληνιστὶ πρὸς τοὺς παρόντας ἐκβοήσας, «Ἀνερρίφθω κύβος», [anerriphtho kybos] διεβίβαζε τὸν στρατόν.

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

– Plutarch, Life of Pompey, 60.2.9^[1]

It is generally assumed, e.g. by Shakespeare, that Caesar here meant, "The dice have been cast"; i.e., "The dice are now cast", and not, "The die is cast."

According to Lewis and Short^[2], the phrase used was a future active imperative, Jacta alea esto, "Let the dice be cast!", or "Let the game be ventured!" This is the meaning of Plutarch's third-person imperative ἀνεῤῥίφθω κύβος (anerrhiphtho kubos).

By the first century AD alea refers to the early form of backgammon that was played in Caesar's time. Augustus (Octavian) mentions winning this game in a letter. Dice were commonly known in Roman times and generally known as cubus. It has thus been suggested that another probable translation of the phrase would be "the (backgammon) game has begun".

See also

• Aleatoricism
• Point of no return

Notes

External links

• Divus Iulius, paragraph 33 by Suetonius, where the quote is found.
• Reference to Augustus playing Alea