A dictionary of Greek and Roman . ave often beenfound in Greek and Roman tombs, both real, andimitated in ivory, bronze, glass, and agate. Thoseof the antelope (Sopicddeioi) were sought as objectsof elegance and curiosity. (Theoph. Char. 5. ;Athen. v. p. 193, f.) They were used to play withfrom the earliest times, principally by women andchildren (Plut. Alcibt p. 350), occasionally by oldmen. (Cic. de Senect. 16.) A painting by Alex-ander of Athens, found at Resina, represents twowomen occupied with this game. One of them,having thrown the bones upwards into the air, hascaught th
A dictionary of Greek and Roman . ave often beenfound in Greek and Roman tombs, both real, andimitated in ivory, bronze, glass, and agate. Thoseof the antelope (Sopicddeioi) were sought as objectsof elegance and curiosity. (Theoph. Char. 5. ;Athen. v. p. 193, f.) They were used to play withfrom the earliest times, principally by women andchildren (Plut. Alcibt p. 350), occasionally by oldmen. (Cic. de Senect. 16.) A painting by Alex-ander of Athens, found at Resina, represents twowomen occupied with this game. One of them,having thrown the bones upwards into the air, hascaught three of them on the back of her hand. {^Erc. i. tav. 1.) See the following woodcut, andcompare the account of the game in Pollux (ix. c. 7).Polygnotus executed a similar work at Delphi, re-presenting the two daughters of Pandarus thus em-ployed (ivai^ovcras darpaydkois, Paus. x. 30. § 1).But a much more celebrated production was thegroup of two naked boys, executed in bronze byPolycletus, and called the Astragalizontes. (Plin. TALUS. 1095. H. N. xxxiv. 8. s. 19.) A fractured marble groupof the same kind, preserved in the British Museum,exhibits one of the tvvo boys in the act of bitingthe arm of his play-fellow so as to present a livelyillustration of the account in Homer of the fatalquarrel of Patroclus. (II. xxiii. 87, 88.) To playat this game was sometimes called irtUTaXiQi^ziv,because five bones or other objects of a similar kindwere employed (Pollux, ); and this number isretained among ourselves. Whilst the tali were without artificial marks, thegame was entirely one of skill ; and in ancient noless than in modern times, it consisted not merelyin catching the five bones on the back of the handas shown in the wood-cut, but in a great variety ofexercises requiring quickness, agility, and accuracyof sight. When the sides of the bone weremarked with different values, the game becameone of chance. [Alea ; Tessera.] The two endswere left blank, because the bone could no
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