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TERMINALLY.
498 B. C. (Liv. ii. 21; Dionys. vi. 1 ; Pint. Pull 12.) In the same manner Quirinns and Mars had temples built to them at a late period. Jupiter also had no temple till the time of Ancus Martins, and the one then built was certainly very insignificant. (Dionys. ii. 34 ; Liv. I 33.) We may therefore suppose that the places of worship among the earliest, Romans were in most cases simple altars or sacella. The Roman temples of later times were constructed in the Greek style. The cella was here, as in Greece, the inner spacious part of the temple which contained the statue or statues of the gods, and an altar before each statue. (Vitruv. iv. 5.) The roof which covered the cella is called testudo, but. it was in most cases not wholly covered, in order to let the light in from above. (Varro, ap. Serv. ad Aen. . 505.) The entrance of a Roman temple was, according to Vitruvius, if possible, always towards the west, •which side was at the same time faced by the image of the divinity, so that persons offering prayers or sacrifices at the altar looked towards the east. (Comp. Isidor. xv. 4, 7 ; Hygin. de Limit, p. 153, ed. Goes.) If it was not practicable to build a temple in such a position, it was placed in such a manner that the greater part of the city could be seen from it; and when a temple was erected by the side of a street or road, it was always so situated that those who passed by could look into it, and offer their salutations to the deity.
As regards the property of temples, it is stated that in earty times lands were assigned to each temple, but these lands were probably intended for the maintenance of the priests alone. [sacerdos.] The sacra puUica were performed at the expense of the treasury, and in like manner we must suppose, that whenever the regular income of a temple, arising from fees and fines, was not sufficient to keep a temple in repair, the state supplied the deficiency, unless an individual volunteered to do so.
The supreme superintendence of the temples of Rome, and of all things connected with them, belonged to the college of pontiffs. Those persons who had the immediate care of the temples were the aeditui. [L.S.] and [P. S.]
TEMPORIS PRAESCRIPTIO. [prakscrip-
TIO.]
. TENSAE. [thensae.] TEPIDA’RIUM. [balneae, p. 190, a.] TERMINA’LIA, a festival in honour of the god Terminus, who presided over boundaries. His statue was merely a stone or post stuck in the ground to distinguish between properties. 0:i the festival the two owners of adjacent property crowned the statue with garlands and raised a rude altar, on which they offered up some corn, honeycombs, and wine, and sacrificed a lamb (Hor. Epod. ii. 59) or a sucking pig. They concluded with singing the praises of the god. (Ovid. Fast. ii. 639, cStc.) The public festival in honour of this god was celebrated at the sixth milestone on the road towards Laurentum (Id. 682), doubtless because this was originally the extent of the Roman territory in that direction.
The festival of the Terminalia was celebrated a. d. VII. Kal. Mart., or the 23d of February on the day before the Regifugium. The Terminalia was celebrated on the last day of the old Roman
TESSERA, vear, whence some derive its name. We know that
»- j
February was the last month of the Roman year, and that when the intercalary month Mercodonius was added, the last five days of February were added to the intercalary month, making the 23rd of February the last day of the year. (Varro, L. L. vi. 13, ed." Muller; Macrob. Sat. i. 13.) When Cicero in a letter to Atticus (vi. 1) says, Accepi tuas litteras a. d. V. Terminalia (i.e. Feb. 19), he uses this strange mode of defining a date, because being then in Cilicia he did not know whether any intercalation had been inserted that jrear. [calkn-darium, pp. 229, b. 230, a.]
TERUNCIUS. [As, p. 141, a.]
TESSERA, dim. TESSE’RULA and TESSEL-LA (/cugoi), a square or cube ; a die ; a token.
The use of small cubes of marble, earthenware, glass, precious stones, and mother-of-pearl for making tessellated pavements (pavimenta tessel-lata, Sueton. Jul. 46) is noticed under domus, p. 431 and pictura, p. 915.
The dice used in games of chance [alea] had the same form, and were commonly made of ivory, bone, or some close-grained wood, especially privet (ligustra tesseris utilissima, Plin. H. N. xvi. 18. s. 31). They were numbered on all the six sides like the dice still in use (Ovid. Trist. ii. 473) ; and in this respect as well as in their form they differed from the tali, which are often distinguished from tesserae by classical writers. (Gellius, xviii. 13; Cic. de Sen. 16.) [TALUS.] Whilst four tali were used in playing, only three tesserae were anciently employed. Hence arose the proverb, $ rpls <=£, t? rpets icv€ot, i. e. " either three sizes or three aces," meaning, all or none (Plat. Leg. xii. ad fin. ; Schol. in lac. ; Pherecrates, p. 49, ed. Runkel) ; for kv€o$ vas used to denote the ace, as in the throw oVo Kv€<a Kal TtTrapa, i. e. 1,1,4, = 6. (Eupolis, p. 174, ed. Runkel; Aristoph. Ran. 1447 ; Schol. in loc.) Three sizes is mentioned as the highest throw in the Agamemnon of Aeschylus (32). As early as the time of Eustathius (in Od. i. 107) we find that the modern practice of using two dice instead of three had been established.
The ancients sometimes played with dice vrAe/cr-To§oAtV5o [talus], when the object was simply to throw the highest numbers. At other times they played also with two sets of latrunculi or draughtsmen, having fifteen men on each side. The board (alveus lusorius, Plin. H. N~. xxxvii. 2. s, 6 ; alveolus, Gellius, i. 20, xiv. 1) was divided by twelve lines, so that the game must have been nearly or altogether the same with tric-trac or backgammon. (Brunck, Anal. iii. 60 ; Jacobs, ad loc.) Perhaps the duodecim scripta of the Roman* was the same game. [abacus.] ^ Objects of the same materials with, dice, and either formed like them or of an oblong shape, were used as tokens for different purposes. The tessera kospitalis was the token of mutual hospitality, and is spoken of under hospitium, p. 619, a. This token was probably in many cases of earthenware, having the head of Jupiter Hospitalis stamped upon it. (Plaut. Poen. v. 1. 25; 2. 87—99.) Tesserae frumentariae and nummariae were tokens given at certain times by the Roman magistrates to the poor, in exchange for which they received a fixed amount of corn or money. (Sueton. Aug. 40, 42, Nero, 11.) [frumentariae leges.] Similar tokens were used on various occasions, as they arose in the course of events. For example,
