“Alea iacta est.”

“The die is cast.”

— Julius Caesar

The shutdown ended Monday, at least for now. That’s good for the millions of people who depend on federal services, not to mention a federal paycheck.

But this time there was an additional incentive to get it settled in a hurry. It’s likely U.S. senators on both sides of the political aisle looked a week into the future and realized it was not a pretty picture.

Next Tuesday night is the State of the Union Address. It will be President Donald Trump’s first address, and he wants — desperately needs, some would say — to make a good impression.

Republicans hope Trump succeeds. With mid-term elections around the corner, bedrock party members — the kind who show up and vote faithfully in off-year elections — remain loyal to Trump. Consequently, they will cheer on their leader regardless of the message.

Naturally, Democratic leaders would welcome the opposite outcome. At least six congressional Democrats already have announced they’ll boycott the speech. One of them, the outspoken Maxine Waters, D-Calif., declared, “Why would I take my time to go and sit and listen to a liar?”

Their battle line is Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals — DACA — legislation that would provide a legal path for the children of undocumented immigrants to stay in the United States and pursue citizenship. The Democrats previously said they would not pass a spending bill without a more solid GOP commitment to debate DACA; the Republicans this weekend were saying they won’t discuss DACA until the government shutdown ends.

On Monday, they agreed to end the stalemate. They agreed to debate DACA. Both sides claimed victory.

In the process, both prevented the ugly alternative: A State of the Union address given with the lights out.

To be truthful and fair, Trump’s one big legislative boast in 2017 is the tax cut. Trump could do very well to use his address to continue selling it — and he needs to continue. A New York Times poll last week found that a majority of Americans believe Trump’s economic policies have “either hurt the economy or had little effect on it. Only 38 percent said his policies improved the economy,” according to The Hill columnist Juan Williams.

The problem with another pitch for the tax cut is that any discussion about the economy will remind Republicans that Trump can’t pass a budget even with GOP control of both chambers of Congress.

That’s an evil truth with few rivals — except maybe that the Democratic holdout was only keeping deserving military families and other government employees from getting paid.

Democrats and Republicans alike peered one week into the future. What they saw disturbed them greatly. They had no alternative but to patch up their differences. What happens after next Tuesday is anybody’s guess.