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variety on the tali : and if there were any laws 
eftabiifhed by cuftom for the regulation of this game 
in public, yet piivate parties might be at liberty to 
innovate at pieafure, and agree upon whatever terms 
cf play were mod: agreeable to their inclinations or 
circumftances. In this light (according to (i 2) Eraf- 
mus) we are to confider the account, which Au- 
guflus gives of himfelf and his friends, in an epiftle 
to Tiberius (13): Inter canam lujimus yegovTiKobs 
keri et hodie : tails enim jaftatis, ut quijque canem 
cut fenionem miferat , in fingulos talcs fingulos dena- 
rics conferebat , qucs tollcbat univerfos , qui Venerem 
jecerat. And it is obvious to remark, that (upon 
this hypothefis) the critics, perhaps, need not have 
been fo much embaraffed (as we find they have been) 
in endeavouring to reconcile this paffage of Sueto- 
nius with that other of Perfius ( 1 4) produced above. 
1 fhall conclude with noting, that in order to pre- 
vent any fraud or flight of hand in managing the 
tali , it was ufual to put them into a box ( 1 y), and, 
after fhaking them together, to throw them out 
upon a table. Thus Martial introduces one of thefe 
turricula , as recommending its own ufefulnefs for 
the purpofe above-mentioned : 
Queer it compojitos manus improba mittere talos , 
Qui per me mitt it, nil niji vota facit (16). 
(12) Dial. ’ Ar&ryciri<ruof. 
(13) Sueton. C. Aug. §.71. 
( 1 4) Sat. 3. v. 48. See Prat. not. in uf. Delph, in Ioc. 
(15) Hor. L. ii. fat. 7. v. 17. 
(16) Mart. L. xiv. epig. 16. 
However, 
