"Alea iacta est"
Commonly translated as "The die is cast," my high school Latin teacher preferred the phrase "Let the dice fly." I agree that her preferred translation has a more romantic or dramatic flair.
I also find this excerpt from the Wikipedia page to be interesting, I had forgotten that he supposedly said this line in Greek, making the Latin translation that much sillier for us to recite.
According to Plutarch, Caesar originally said the line in Greek rather than Latin, as ἀνερρίφθω κύβος 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 (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".
|
Automated Archives for August, 19th 2025
This post was automatically generated.
Blog Posts On This Day
- August 19, 2023 (2 posts)
- August 19, 2022 (4 posts)
|
