those of rich Mosaic work made of curious square marbles, bricks, or tiles, call- ed tesserae from their resembling dice.

TERRA, in Roman antiquity, denoted in its prima- ry sense a cube or dye; so called from the Greek word τετράς, or τετράς, four; respect being had to its number of sides, distinct from the two horizontal planes above and below. And it was thus distinguished from the talus, which being round at each end, contained only four planes or faces on which it could stand; and therefore when thrown had no more than two side faces in view. Hence ludere ta- lis et ludere tesserae are spoken of by Roman writers as two different games. The syllable tes occurs often in Ro- man inscriptions. The word tessera was applied to many other things, not so much from a similitude in the figure, as from the relation they bore to some other thing, of which they were the sign or token; as the points on the upper plane of the dye denoted the good or ill success of the cast.

The tessera hospitalis was either public or private. As to the former, we find among the inscriptions published by Gruter instances of two municipal towns which put them- selves under the patronage of the Roman governor; and the reciprocal engagement between them, engraved on two cop- per plates, in the form of an oblong square, with a pediment at the top, is called in both tessera hospitalis. The design of it was to cultivate or maintain a lasting friendship between private persons and their families; and gave a mutual claim to the contracting parties and their descendants of a recep- tion and kind treatment at each other's houses, as occasion offered. For which end these tesserae were so contrived as best to preserve the memory of that transaction to posterity. And one method of doing this was by dividing one of them lengthwise into two equal parts; upon each of which one of the parties wrote his name, and interchanged it with the other. From this custom came the prevailing expression tesserae hospitalis confingere, applied to persons who violated their engagements.

The tesserae fragmentariae were small tallies given by the em- perors to the populace at Rome, entitling them to the re- ception of a quantity of corn from the public at stated seasons. The person who had the inspection of these was called tessellarius. They were made of wood and of stone.

There was another kind of tessera which intitled persons to a right of the public games and other diversions, usually made in the form of an oblong square.

The tessera militaris was a signal given by the general, or chief commander of an army, as a direction to the soldiers for executing any duty or service required of them. This, upon urgent occasions, was only vocal; but, in ordinary cases, it was written on a tablet, commonly made of wood. Beside these civil and military tesserae, there are others which relate to religious affairs, and may be called sacred.