[ 22 5 ] 
The infeription ingraveti oil the two Tides is. 
TES. DEI. MAR 
SEDI AR VM 
See the 
tab. 
Which Words may, as I apprehend, be read at 
length in the following manner : 
•' Tejfera Dei Mart is Sedianim. 
The firft abbreviated word tes. I take to ftand 
for TeJJera , a dye or cube {a). To called from the 
Greek word rsajctpx or reosepcc, four j refpedt be- 
ing had to its number of lides, diftinft from the 
two horizontal planes, above and below. And un- 
der this confideration it was diftinguifhed from the 
Talus , which being round at each end contained 
only four planes or faces, whereon it could hand, 
and therefore when thrown had no more than two 
fide faces in view. Hence ludere tahs et tejferis 
are Tpoken of by Roman writers as two different 
games (b). 
But if this was the firft and original notion of the 
word Teffera , it was applied afterwards to many- 
other things j and that not fo much from a fimili- 
tude in the figure, as from the relation they bore 
to Tome other thing, of which they were the %n 
or token 5 as the points, on the upper plane of the 
dye denoted the good or ill fuccefs of the caft. To 
recite the Teverai ufes of this word would both be 
tedious and unneccftary > and therefore I {hall men- 
tion fome few only, from which the defign of this 
plate may the more eafily appear. 
And 
/ 
(a) Macrob. In fom, Scip, lib. n, cap , 2. (b) Cic,, De 
j'enett, cap, 16. 
I 
