Note 50 — A. PERSIUS FLACCUS

angustae collo non fallier orcae: The allusion is to a game at nuces, called τρόπα or ‘cherry-pit.’ ‘’Tis not for gravity to play at cherry-pit with Satan,’ Shaksp., Twelfth N., 3, 4. Fr. à la fossette. Comp. Rabelais, 1, 2. The modern equivalent of nuces is marbles, and the modern τρόπα is ‘pitch-in-the-hole,’ or ‘knucks.’ Instead of the hole in the ground (βόθρος), the ancients used a small jar (orca), and to enhance the difficulty of getting in, the neck of this jar was made narrow (collo angustae orcae = angusto collo orcae, by Hypallagé, v. 4). So the modern hole admits but one marble. Comp. [Ov.] Nux, 85, 86: Vas quoque saepe cavum spatio distante locatur, | in quod missa levi nux cadat una manu.—fallier: like dicier, 1, 28.