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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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The other night in the pre-war news commentary, someone was talking about the way that wars tend not to unfold as plans, and they quoted Caesar's remark about crossing the Rubicon, "...the die is cast." The speaker was interpreting this as in "a roll of the dice."
I had thought that the phrase "the die is cast" referred to metal work, i.e. metal poured into a form and allowed to cool. Which is correct?
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Joined: Jan 2001
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Dear Alex: I don't know what the dice game Caesar referred to, but evidently there must have been a game in which only one die was used. I have read that animal knuckle bones could be used The game could have been as simple as throwing one bone, then throwing a second one, trying to match the position of the first one, and losing your wager if you failed to achieve a match. If carefully made numbered cubes like modern dice had been u;sed, the archaeologists ought to have found thousands of them. I'll go see if I find anything about that. I found several sites indicating that cubic dice go back three thousand years or more. Here is a site with pictures of ancient dice. However, no clue as to rules of games in Caesar's day. http://www.geocities.com/ladysveva/games/DiceImages
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Joined: Dec 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Alea iacta est
alea -ae f. [a game of dice , game of hazard]; hence [chance, risk, uncertainty].
iacto -are [to throw , cast, toss, fling away or about; to diffuse, spread, scatter; to harass, disturb]
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addict
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addict
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Ah! Asterix!!  I always read that as Alea JACTA est... Faldage, is Jacta the same as Iacta?
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Jacta, iacta, same difference. The J is a modern conceit.
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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And the modern use of the "i" instead is a Faldagian conceit. Go figger.
- Pfranz
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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The online Latin dictionary I was quoting used the I. Din't want no confusion.
Wait a minute, Faldage, you said "jacta" and then the dictionary said "iacta." Which is it...?
You know how Juan gets
Julie used an I. If it's good enuff for Julie, it's good enuff for me.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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>If it's good enuff for Julie..
yes, I'm sure he'd be pleased to see eiaculate, iactation, iactitation and the like.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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I just found a quotation from Suetonius that says Caesar was reported to have used the phrase. I had thought perhaps it might be a phony legend.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Plutarch claims he attually® said Anerriphtho kubos.
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