Attributed to Julius Caesar, what does the phrase ‘Alea iacta est’ translate to in English?
Alea iacta est Alea iacta est Caesar was said to have borrowed the phrase from Menander, his favourite Greek writer of comedy; the phrase appears in "Ἀρρηφόρος" (transliterated as "Arrephoros") (or possibly "The Flute-Girl"), as quoted in "Deipnosophistae" , paragraph 8. Plutarch reports that these words were said in Greek: Suetonius, a contemporary of Plutarch writing in Latin, reports a similar phrase. Lewis and Short, citing Casaubon and Ruhnk, suggest that the text of Suetonius should read "iacta alea esto" (reading the imperative "esto" instead of "est"), which they translate as "Let the die be cast!", or "Let the game be ventured!". This
Alea iacta est matches Plutarch's use of third-person singular perfect middle/passive imperative of the verb , i.e. (, ). In Latin "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 common in Roman times and were 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". In Greek a die was "kybos". The phrase in translation is used in many languages to indicate that events have passed