The alt.usage.english FAQ   

• "The die is cast."

  (Phrase Origins)
  
  

  
  does NOT mean "The metal template has been molded."   It's what
  Julius Caesar said on crossing the river Rubicon to invade Italy in
  49 B.C.  The "die" is a gambling die, and "cast" means thrown.  The
  phrase means "An irrevocable decision has been made."  (The Latin
  words, "Jacta alea est", are given in Suetonius' _Divus Julius_,
  XXXII.  _Alea_ denotes the *game* of dice, rather than the physical
  die:  the dice game is in its thrown state.  "The die is cast" and
  "the dice are cast" would be equally good translations.  Compare
  "Les jeux sont faits", heard at Monte Carlo.)
  
     Plutarch wrote two accounts in Greek of Caesar's crossing the
  Rubicon.  Both times, he gives the words as _Anerriphtho: kubos_ =
  "Let the die be cast."  In one of the accounts (Life of Pompey), he
  says that Caesar actually uttered the words in Greek; in the other
  (Life of Caesar), he suggests that the words were already a proverb
  before Caesar uttered them.

  
  
  Source: [Mark Israel, 'Phrase Origins: "The die is cast."', The alt.usage.english FAQ file,(line 4659), (29 Sept 1997)]
  
  
  
  

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