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I was thinking about the famous Phrase "alea iacta est", and I was wondering: how would be the plural version of it?

I thought about

ALEAS IACTA SUNT

Because aleas needs to be in the accusative declination since it's the object and not the subject.

Sunt because "they are".

I am just stuck on "iacta" which should be conjugated with sunt and aleas, right?

Should it be IACENT?

Joonas Ilmavirta
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Henry
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    "Alea" is not the object, it is the subject. The verb is a perfect passive form (literally, "The die has been cast"). So the plural would be "The dice have been cast", "Aleae iactae sunt". – MPW Jun 02 '17 at 19:40

3 Answers3

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The plural would be aleae iactae sunt.

Alea / aleae is nominative, because it's the subject of a passive verb-form.

Note that, if you used the accusative case for alea, the verb would have to be in the active and its subject would be implicit, or else would have to be a noun or pronoun. So,

aleam / aleas iecit means 'he (she, it) threw the di(c)e'. Putting in a discrete subject indicates who did the throwing: Gaius aleam iecit.

Tom Cotton
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It does not really make sense to put "Alea iacta est" in the plural form. The reason for this is that alea does not exactly mean "one dice" or "one die" (as some resources claim), but it in original Latin, alea is the name for the "game of dice" or "set of dice". As a consequence, using the plural would mean something like "The sets of dice were thrown" which is most probably not the intended meaning.

I found this explanation on the German wikipedia. It says:

Common incorrect translations are:

  • „Aleum iactum est“ (assuming there is a singular aleum)
  • „Alea iacta sunt“ (as above, but plural)

The word alea in the singular form means the "game of dice" as a whole. Consequently, "Alea iacta sunt" would be a correct plural, but would refer to multiple games (or sets) of dices. In fact, alea can be translated in the singular as wells as the plural form. However, in Latin the verb is always in the singular form.

The English wikipedia does not discuss the grammar of the English translation.

Also interesting (quoted from Wiktionary):

The form “the die is cast” is from the Latin iacta ālea est, a grammatically incorrect translation by Suetonius, 121 CE, of the Ancient Greek phrase of Menander ἀνερρίφθω κύβος (anerrhíphthō kúbos), which Caesar quoted in Greek (not Latin). The Greek translates rather as “let the die be cast!”, or “let the game be ventured!”.

not2savvy
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    I’ve checked several online Latin dictionaries, and while all of them give dice game and/or game of chance as possible definitions, all of them give die as the primary definition. Moreover, it seems very likely to me that Caesar meant die when he said alea iacta est simply because one throws dice; one doesn’t throw games. To throw a game means to lose in English, but I doubt that the idiom was the same for Romans. So can we get more evidence than an assertion that it’s on the German wikipedia (without even having a link, so we cannot even investigate that article’s sources)? – KRyan Jun 02 '17 at 16:19
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    @KRyan Thanks for your comment. I've edited my answer to include the link and quote. However, I must say that I don't find it appropriate to immediately downvote my answer. I was just trying to shed some additional light on the subject. – not2savvy Jun 02 '17 at 16:44
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    It’s not additional light if it’s not actually true; including false statements is actually distinctly unhelpful, and that’s literally the definition of something appropriate to downvote. The burden of proof is on you to back up your answer; if you do not do so sufficiently and people think your answer is incorrect, you will and should be downvoted. The wikipedia article you reference does not cite any of its own sources behind its claim, so I still find it unlikely to be true. And the Wiktionary quote, while interesting, neither backs up your primary claim nor really relates to the question. – KRyan Jun 02 '17 at 16:57
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    The key information is that there are resources stating there is no plural aleae because alea is a Plurale tantum which cannot be put into the grammatical plural. However, for some strange reason, I can find only German quotes for this. Giving up. – not2savvy Jun 02 '17 at 17:26
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    @KRyan I actually agree with this answer. Lewis & Short translates alea as a "game of dice", and only mentions tessera or talus as an actual "die." As further evidence, I did a corpus search and did not find a single example of alea in the plural (surely that is significant!). Can you propose a single example where alea can only refer to a physical die, not the game itself? – brianpck Jun 02 '17 at 19:03
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    @brianpck See, your comment is a good answer. This answer is not. Because your comment backs up its claims, while the answer does not. I would happily upvote your comment as an answer, whether that be incorporated into this answer or put up as a separate answer. – KRyan Jun 02 '17 at 19:11
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    @KRyan You're welcome to think so, though he did link to the same L&S entry. The German Wiki entry, though unsourced, is not worthless. I decided to ask the question more explicitly elsewhere: https://latin.stackexchange.com/questions/4499/can-alea-refer-to-a-physical-die-or-only-the-game-of-dice – brianpck Jun 02 '17 at 19:18
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    Interesting discussion. As a side point, Wiktionary is slightly wrong to translate the Greek ἀνερρίφθω κύβος as “let the die be cast!” or “let the game be ventured!”: ἀνερρίφθω is a perfect imperative, so the literal meaning is "let the die have been cast". Latin can convey this with alea iacta esto, which seems to be a variant of the phrase. The Greek κύβος, btw, does mean a single physical die, not a game of dice. – TKR Jun 03 '17 at 00:29
  • @TKR Isn't "be cast" the infinitive form of the perfect tense while "have been cast" would actually be present perfect continuous? – not2savvy Jun 28 '17 at 12:48
  • @not2savvy To be cast is a present passive infinitive, to have been cast is a perfect (aka present perfect) passive infinitive. Present perfect continuous would be to have been casting. – TKR Jun 28 '17 at 16:54
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I study Latin and Greek: a lot of phrases cannot and should not be changed, as they must be used "as is". No one will try to modify an English like "Beat around the bush" in "bushes".

For grammar, answer from Henry is clean.

Joonas Ilmavirta
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ingconti
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