Alea iacta est

Latin phrase saying "The die is cast". Attributed to Julius Caesar. It means that there is no way back now.

In context with Caesar, he used this when he crossed the Rubicon on his way Rome after his conquests to reclaim his power in the Senate and eventually to demigod status in Roman culture.

After he conquered the rampaging hordes of barbarians, he would use his other trademark phrase: "Veni, Vidi, Vici", meaning "I came, I saw, I conquered".

You have to admire his eloquence. Latin is such a compact language.

Although this is normally misquoted as having been said in Latin, as Caesar was a Roman and that was their language, the original quote was in Greek: "ANEPIΦΘΩKYBOI" or with my attempt at romanization: Anerivth o kuboi" (please forgive me, and send a better one). Caesar was supposed to have been quoting his favorite poet.

This has also been argued by Erasmus as a mistranslation into Latin; a better one, he contended, would be "Alea iacta esto," using a peculiar Latin form: the future imperative.


With thanks to liveforever for fixing my incompetence at using Unicode.