the die is cast

[Bernard W. Kane]

Further to Mr. Abate's posting: in the Oxford Dict of Quotations p. 126 No.
30 we read: The die is cast
At the crossing of the Rubicon. Often quoted in Latin, 'Iacta alea est,' but
originally spoken in Greek; Plutarch _Pompey_ 60.2
where we find
"For when he came to the banks of the Rubicon, a river that made the bounds
of his province, there he made a halt, pausing a little, and considering, we
may suppose, with himself the greatness of the enterprise which he had
undertaken, then, at last, like men that are throwing themselves headlong
from some precipice into a vast abyss, having shut, as it were, his mind's
eyes and put away from his sight the idea of danger, he merely uttered to
those near him in Greek the words, 'Anerriphtho kubos' (let the die be
cast), and led his army through it." (Modern Library ed., tr John Dryden,
rev. Arthur Clough, n.d., p. 783)
Sorry don't have the original, but there's that _phth_ combination again,
guys.
Anybody familiar enough with gambling practice in this period to tell us why
only one die (kubos)? When did they take to shooting two at a time?

Bernie Kane
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