Scientia potentia est A Sponti (Außerparlamentarische Opposition) version of the slogan is "Wissen ist Macht, nichts wissen, macht auch nichts", a pun about the previous motto along the line "Knowledge is power, but being ignorant doesn't bother anyway". Joschka Fischer and Daniel Cohn-Bendit belong to those Spontis that nevertheless held powerful positions, in Fischer's case with no more formal education than a taxi driver's licence. The German Bundeswehr Bataillon Elektronische Kampfführung 932, an electronic warfare unit based in Frankenberg (Eder), still uses the Latin version "Scientia potentia est" as its motto. Though its meaning varies from author to author, the phrase often implies
Menander army to civil war by crossing the River Rubicon. The popular form "the die is cast" is from the Latin "iacta alea est", a mistranslation by Suetonius, 121 AD. According to Plutarch, the actual phrase used by Julius Caesar at the crossing of the Rubicon was a quote in Greek from Menander's play "Arrhephoros", with the different meaning "Let the die be cast!". See discussion at "the die is cast" and ""Alea iacta est"". "Lewis and Short", citing Casaubon and Ruhnk, suggest that the text of Suetonius should read "Jacta alea esto", which they translate as "Let the die be