ned up.
The highest in value was that called Venus, in which the numbers cast
up were all different; the sum of them being only fourteen. It was by
obtaining this throw, hence called basilicus, that 'the King of the
Feast' was appointed by the Romans. Certain other throws were called
by particular names, taken from the gods, heroes, kings, courtesans,
animals; altogether there were sixty-four such names. Thus, the throw
consisting of two aces and two treys, making eight, was denominated
Stesichorus. When the object was simply to throw the highest number,
the game was called pleistobolinda, a Greek word of that meaning. When a
person threw the tali, he often invoked either a god or his mistress.

Dice were also made of ivory, bone, or some close-grained wood,
especially privet ligustris tesseris utilissima, (Plin. H. N.). They were
numbered as at present.

Arsacides, King of the Parthians, presented Demetrius Nicator, among
other presents, with golden dice--it is said, in contempt for his
frivolous propensity to play--in exprobationem puerilis levitatis.'(58)

(58) Justini Hist., lib. xxxviii. 9. 9.

Dice are also mentioned in the New Testament, where occurs the word
cubeia (Eph. iv. 14), ('the only word for "gambling" used in the
Bible'), a word in very common use, among Paul's kith and kin, for
'cube,' 'dice,' 'dicery,' and it occurs frequently in the Talmud and
Midrash. The Mishna declares unfit either as 'judge or witness,' 'a
cubea-player, a usurer, a pigeon-flier (betting-man), a vendor
of illegal (seventh-year) produce, and a slave.' A mitigating
clause--proposed by one of the weightiest legal authorities, to the
effect that the gambler and his kin should only be disqualified 'if they
have but that one profession'--is distinctly negatived by the majority,
and the rule remains absolute. The classical word for the gambler
or dice-player, cubeutes, appears aramaized in the same sources into
something like kubiustis, as the following curious instances may show:
When the Angel, after having wrestled with Jacob all night, asks him to
let him go, 'for the dawn has risen' (A. V., 'the day breaketh'), Jacob
is made to reply to him, 'Art thou, then, a thief or a kubiustis, that
thou art afraid of the day?' To which the Angel replies, 'No, I am not;
but it is my turn to-day, and for the first time, to sing the Angelic
Hymn of Praise in Heaven: let me go.' In another Tadmudical passage an
early biblical critic is discus