burst into the house where Pittalacus was living. First they smashed the implements of his trade and tossed them into the street—sundry dice1 and dice-boxes, and his gaming utensils in general; they killed the quails and cocks, so well beloved by the miserable man; and finally they tied Pittalacus himself to the pillar and gave him an inhuman whipping, which lasted until even the neighbors heard the uproar.
1 Probably the scholiast is right in explaining ἀστραγάλους διασείστους “shaken astragali,” as the gamester's name for a sort of dice. Perhaps the hearers would understand that they were loaded dice. Benseler, however, approves Dorville's explanation, that these dice had been many a time before now “shaken” between Pittalacus and the rascals who are now tossing them into the street.
Aeschines. Aeschines with an English translation by Charles Darwin Adams, Ph.D. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1919.
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