t Cicero's _De republica_ (Ammianus Marcellinus xxii. 16)
provoked a reply from Suetonius. In spite of his stupendous industry,
Didymus was little more than a compiler, of little critical judgment and
doubtful accuracy, but he deserves recognition for having incorporated
in his numerous writings the works of earlier critics and commentators.

See M. W. Schmidt, _De Didymo Chalcentero_ (1853) and _Didymi
Chalcenteri fragmenta_ (1854); also F. Susemihl, _Geschichte der
griech. Literatur in der Alexandrinerzeit_, ii. (1891); J. E. Sandys,
_History of Classical Scholarship_, i. (1906).

DIE, a town of south-eastern France, capital of an arrondissement in the
department of Drome, 43 m. E.S.E. of Valence on the Paris-Lyon railway.
Pop. (1906) 3090. The town is situated in a plain enclosed by mountains
on the right bank of the Drome below its confluence with the Meyrosse,
which supplies power to some of the industries. The most interesting
structures of Die are the old cathedral, with a porch of the 11th
century supported on granite columns from an ancient temple of Cybele;
and the Porte St Marcel, a Roman gateway flanked by massive towers. The
Roman remains also include the ruins of aqueducts and altars. Die is the
seat of a sub-prefect, and of a tribunal of first instance. The
manufactures are silk, furniture, cloth, lime and cement, and there are
flour and saw mills. Trade is in timber, especially walnut, and in white
wine known as _clairette de Die_. The mulberry is largely grown for the
rearing of silkworms. Under the Romans, Die (_Dea Augusta Vocontiorum_)
was an important colony. It was formerly the seat of a bishopric, united
to that of Valence from 1276 to 1687 and suppressed in 1790. Previous to
the revocation of the edict of Nantes in 1685 it had a Calvinistic
university.

DIE (Fr. _de_, from Lat. _datum_, given), a word used in various senses,
for a small cube of ivory, &c. (see DICE), for the engraved stamps used
in coining money, &c., and various mechanical appliances in engineering.
In architecture a "die" is the term used for the square base of a
column, and it is applied also to the vertical face of a pedestal or
podium.

The fabrics known as "dice" take their name from the rectangular form of
the figure. The original figures would probably be perfectly square, but
to-day the same principle of weaving is applied, and the name dice is
given to all figures of rectangular form. The differen