Note 749 — JUVENAL'S SATIRES. (continued 3)

Tessellæ. Holyday explains this by "chess-board," from the resemblance of the squares to the tesselated pavements. But it is a die, properly; of which shape the separate tesseræ were. Mart., xiv., 17, "Hic mihi bis seno numeratur tessera puncto: Calculus hic gemino discolor hoste perit." Cf. Ep. 14. Cicero considers this game to be one of the legitimate amusements of old age. "Nobis senibus, ex lusionibus multis, talos relinquant et tesseras," de Sen., xvi. "Old Mucius Scævola, the lawyer, was a great proficient at it. It was called Ludus duodecim scriptorum, from the lines dividing the alveolus. On these the two armies, white and black, each consisting of fifteen men, or calculi, were placed; and alternately moved, according to the chances of the dice, tesseræ." Vid. Gibbon, chap. xxxi.