[ 9 ° ] 
fpeck of it according to ideas taken from the fafh’on 
of marking the modern dice, and (I may adc) the 
ancient l fierce likewife : but, as I did not obferve 
the traces of any engraving, painting, &c. upon the 
pieces under confideration, it feemsto me more pro- 
bable, what others affert (4.), that this diflindtion 
was effedted by the different configuration of the fides 
tbemfelves, and not by any numbers marked upon 
them. And concerning this notation, the common 
opinion is, that the appearances exprefling one and 
fix , as alfo thofe reprefenting three and fiour y were 
oppofed to each other refpedtively. 
But leaving thefe (however probable) conjedhires, 
we can with certainty determine the number of the 
tali ufed in this game to have been four j and like- 
wife, that among the various chances reful ting from 
them, the moft fortunate one was that, wherein each 
of the fides exhibited a different afpedt. The former 
of thefe circumftances we learn from Tully (y), as 
we do the latter from Martial, who, in a difiich fent 
with a prefent of a fet of tali to a friend, fays. 
Cum Jieterit nullus valtu tibi talus eodem , 
Muncra m e dices magna dediffe tibi (6). 
It may further be colledted from Horace, that the 
throw above deferibed had the appellation of Venus : 
for when he intimates, that the prefident of the feafl 
was eledted by the tali (7), he mull be fuppofed to 
(4) Tfl rtl <y*u'Z ry x.a.Tc t <f ’Arp dycLKov Htu[j.o. 7 os ’A Ao'cti/ 
tiyzv. Jul. Pollux. L. ix. c. 7. 
(5) Quatuor tali jafti cafu 'venereum effeiunt. Cic. de Div. L. i. 
§. 13. Ed. Verb. 
(6) Mart. L. xiv. epig. 14. 
(7) Net regna vini for ii ere tails, L, i, od, 4. v, 18. 
mean 
