C 89 ] 
humble opinion, deferved it, as tending to throw 
new light upon antiquity ; I beg leave to trouble you 
with my thoughts upon them. 
I fhall begin with the mufeum ip the King of the 
Two Sicilies’ palace at Portici ; wherein, amongft a 
great number of other ancient and valuable remains, 
are thefe that follow, viz, 
1 « 
I. 
Several tali htforii. The tali are fuppofed to 
have been known to the Greeks ( 1 ) by the name of 
5 A^pdiyaAoi as early as the Trojan war. But as the 
monuments before us are undoubtedly Roman, I 
ihall confine my remarks upon them to the ufages 
received among that people 5 and being guided partly 
by what appears upon the face of thefe antiquities, 
and partly by what the Latin clafiics have delivered 
in general upon this fubiedt, beg leave to obferve, in 
the firft place, that the tali had each of them but 
four fides, two broader, and the other two more nar- 
row, on which they would ordinarily reft ; as the 
rounding of their ends did not eafily permit them to 
ftand upon thofe parts. However, the poflibility of 
fuch a pofition (tho’ it did not occur to me to make 
the experiment with thefe pieces) may be deduced 
from a paflage in Tully (2). 
Further, with regard to the manner of diftinguifhing 
the feveral tides of the tali , fome learned (3) writers 
(1) Horn. Iiad. 23. v. 88. 
(2) Ut enim ft hoc jingamus , ejfe quafi Jinem it a jacere 
talum , ut reflus affljlat , qui ita talus erit jaflus, ut cadat retlut 
Cic. de Fin. L. 3. § 16. Ed. Verb. 
(3) Vid. Dacier not. on Hor. L. ii. Od. 7. v. 25, See. 
Vol. 50. N fpeak. 
