t not the dormouse?--M.]

[Footnote 46: This game, which might be translated by the more familiar
names of trictrac, or backgammon, was a favorite amusement of the
gravest Romans; and old Mucius Scaevola, the lawyer, had the reputation
of a very skilful player. It was called ludus duodecim scriptorum, from
the twelve scripta, or lines, which equally divided the alvevolus
or table. On these, the two armies, the white and the black, each
consisting of fifteen men, or catculi, were regularly placed, and
alternately moved according to the laws of the game, and the chances of
the tesseroe, or dice. Dr. Hyde, who diligently traces the history and
varieties of the nerdiludium (a name of Persic etymology) from Ireland
to Japan, pours forth, on this trifling subject, a copious torrent
of classic and Oriental learning. See Syntagma Dissertat. tom. ii. p.
217-405.]

[Footnote 47: Marius Maximus, homo omnium verbosissimus, qui, et
mythistoricis se voluminibus implicavit. Vopiscus in Hist. August.
p. 242. He wrote the lives of the emperors, from Trajan to Alexander
Severus. See Gerard Vossius de Historicis Latin. l. ii. c. 3, in his
works, vol. iv. p. 47.]

[Footnote 48: This satire is probably exaggerated. The Saturnalia of
Macrobius, and the epistles of Jerom, afford satisfactory proofs, that
Christian theology and classic literature were studiously cultivated by
several Romans, of both sexes, and of the highest rank.]

[Footnote 49: Macrobius, the friend of these Roman nobles, considered
the siara as the cause, or at least the signs, of future events, (de
Somn. Scipion l. i. c 19. p. 68.)]

Chapter XXXI: Invasion Of Italy, Occupation Of Territories By
Barbarians.--Part II.

In populous cities, which are the seat of commerce and manufactures,
the middle ranks of inhabitants, who derive their subsistence from the
dexterity or labor of their hands, are commonly the most prolific,
the most useful, and, in that sense, the most respectable part of the
community. But the plebeians of Rome, who disdained such sedentary and
servile arts, had been oppressed from the earliest times by the weight
of debt and usury; and the husbandman, during the term of his military
service, was obliged to abandon the cultivation of his farm. [50] The
lands of Italy which had been originally divided among the families of
free and indigent proprietors, were insensibly purchased or usurped by
the avarice of the nobles; and in the age which precede