In the May 22 paper in an article on the expansion of Medicaid, Newport Republican Kenneth Fredette said, “The die Is cast” — in Latin, “Alea iacta est” — and your writer Steve Mistler attributed it to a civil war in ancient Greece.

Not true. It was said by Julius Caesar as he was about to cross the Rubicon, a river in northern Italy.

It meant that he was leaving the territories to take on the Roman Republic and become its leader, and he did. He started his quest with that quote and it ended, according to Shakespeare, with another famous statement: “Et tu, Brute?”

Now my quote: “Veni, vidi, vici.”

Tom Brazier

Waterville