Re: IACTA ALEA EST questions

>A colleague in the Law School asks me:
>
>Why did Caesar (as reported by Suetonius *Caesar 32) use the singular
>in his famous aleatory remark?  Is there a significance to the sort of
>game that was played with one die, as opposed to more than one?

As far as I can see (haven't combed through the PHI results yet), *alea* is
never used at all in the plural, because it designates the game, not the
token used in it. A better question might be, why did he use *alea* at all
instead of *tali* or *tesserae*?

And it seems he might have said "Iacta alea esto" rather than *est*; at
least that's what Erasmus apparently thought, on the basis of the relevant
passages of Appian and Plutarch, which do involve an imperative.


>
>Plutarch's *Life of Caesar says that this is a proverbial expression.  Was
>it proverbial before Caesar, or did it become proverbial between the time
>of Caesar and Plutarch?
>
>Thanks for any light you can shine on these questions.
>
>Daniel Levine
>Professor, Classical Studies
>University of Arkansas
>dlevine@xxxxxxxx


James L. P. Butrica
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