«Il dado è tratto». Osservazioni su un gioco di guerra

«Il dado è tratto», the well-known sentence released by Julius Caesar, has to be intended, very probably, as «si getti il dado» according to a philological tradition that can be traced back to the XVI century. This contribute aims to clarify the real meaning of the sentence starting from another well-known tradition, that is to say the iconographic pattern illustrated by the scene of Achilles and Ajax playing a game board on a black-figured amphora (Musei Vaticani, Museo Gregoriano Etrusco).