LATIN SAYING

Alea iacta est

It is a Latin phrase attributed by Suetonius (as iacta alea est ) to Julius Caesar on January 10, 49 BC as he led his army across the River Rubicon in northern Italy.

With this step, he entered Italy at the head of his army in defiance of the Roman Senate and began his long civil war against Pompey and the Optimates.

The phrase is still used today to mean that events have passed a point of no return, that something inevitable will happen.

Caesar was said to have borrowed the phrase from Menander, his favorite Greek writer of comedy. Plutarch reports that these words were said in Greek.