[Footnote 80: _Playing with dice_)--Ver. 742. The “tesseræ” of the ancients were cubes, or what we call “dice;” while the “tali” were in imitation of the knuckle-bones of animals, and were marked on four sides only. For some account of the mode of playing with the “tali,” see the last Scene of the Asinaria, and the Curculio of Plautus, l. 257-9. Madame Dacier suggests that Menander may possibly have borrowed this passage from the Republic of Plato, B. X., where he says, “We should take counsel from accidents, and, as in a game at dice, act according to what has fallen, in the manner which reason tells us to be the best.”] [Footnote 81: _Hold of the rope_)--Ver. 755. “Restim ductans saltabis.” Donatus and Madame Dacier think that this is only a figurative expression for a dance in which all joined hands; according to some, however, a dance is alluded to where the person who led off drew a rope or cord after him, which the rest of the company took hold of as they danced; which was invented in resemblance of the manner in which the wooden horse was dragged by ropes into the city of Troy.] [Footnote 82: _Salvation herself_)--Ver. 764. See an observation relative to the translation of the word “Salus,” in the Notes to Plautus, vol. i. pages 193, 450.] [Footnote 83: _Have done your duty_)--Ver. 767. His duty of providing the viands and drink for the entertainment. So Ergasilus says in the Captivi of Plautus, l. 912, “Now I will go off to my government (præfecturam), to give laws to the bacon.”] [Footnote 84: _I must assist him_)--Ver. 795. Colman remarks on this passage: “The character of Micio appears extremely amiable through the first four Acts of this Comedy, and his behavior is in many respects worthy of imitation; but his conduct in conniving at the irregularities of Ctesipho, and even assisting him to support them, is certainly reprehensible. Perhaps the Poet threw this shade over his virtues on purpose to show that mildness and good-humor might be carried to excess.”] [Footnote 85: _That point I was coming to_)--Ver. 824. Colman observes here: “Madame Dacier makes an observation on this speech, something like that of Donatus on one of Micio’s above; and says that Micio, being hard put to it by the real circumstances of the case, thinks to confound Demea by a nonsensical gallimatia. I can not be of the ingenious lady’s opinion on this matter, for I think a more sensible speech could not be made, nor a better plea offered in favor of the young men, than that of Micio in the present instance.”] [Footnote 86: _At the very mid-day_)--Ver. 851. Exposed to the heat of a mid-day sun.] [Footnote 87: _To the object_)--Ver. 857. The marriage and its festivities.] [Footnote 88: _Am the eldest_)--Ver. 884. And therefore likely to be the first to die, and to avoid seeing such a time come.]