THE GAMING TABLE.
Gaming was a perfect passion among the Romans, and indeed among most
ancient nations. Dice of bone and ivory, like those in use to-day, have
been found in the tombs of Thebes and Luxor. Æschylus and Sophocles
describe their use four hundred years before Christ, and in an ancient
Greek picture now before us, a female figure is shown tossing _tali_, or
gaming cubes, and catching them on the back of her hand, as children now
play "Jacks." Soldiers from the enforced idleness of much of their time
and the intense excitement of the rest of it, have in every age been
addicted to gambling to beguile the _ennui_ of their too ample
leisure--from those of Alexander down to the raw recruits of to-day. Our
friend, Ligurius Rufus, had undergone frequent experience of the pains
and pleasures of this siren vice; but was eager to return to its
embrace. Such vast estates had been squandered, and great families
impoverished, and large fortunes often staked upon a single throw of the
dice--beyond anything that Homburg or Monaco ever saw--that gambling was
forbidden by successive Roman laws. But when were not the rich able to
indulge in their favourite vices, even under a much purer Government
than that of Rome? So even in this place of public resort, were numerous
alcoves in which stood gaming tables, while money changers--generally
Jews--had tables near for giving good Roman sesterces in exchange for
the _oboloi_ or _drachmai_ of Greece, the shekels of Jerusalem, or the
scarabæus coins of Egypt. Into one of these alcoves the three friends
now turned, Isidorus promising himself that he would only look on. He
had been excessively addicted to play, but had, notwithstanding
occasional success, lost so much money that he had abjured the seductive
vice, especially since his visit to the Catacomb with his friend
Faustus, who had urged him to forsake a practice so perilous in itself,
and so opposed to Christian conduct.
Calphurnius and Rufus sat down to the gaming table, and the Greek stood
looking on. The gold was placed in two piles on the board. The dice
rattled, and eager eyes took in at a glance the number of red spots on
the upper surface. Rufus seemed to have recovered his good fortune.
Throw after throw was successful.
"That is the _Jadus Venereus_," he exclaimed with exultation, as he made
the cast that counted highest. "We must have wine and I must be
toast-master," for so was called the leader of the revels.
The Greek watched with honest interest the play, his eye flashing and
his pulse quickening under its strange spell. The richest wines of Chios
and Lesbos were ordered; and as the wine was poured into jewelled
goblets, he required slight urging to partake of the fragrant vintage of
the Isles of Greece. The eager play was resumed. The Greek noted each
practised turn of the wrist and cast of the dice--his eye kindling and
his brain throbbing with the subtle intoxication of both the game and
the wine.
"I've won enough," said Rufus, "I've got back my own, and more. I don't
want to ruin you, my good fellow," and he positively declined to play
any more. His honest nature recoiled from taking that for which he gave
no value, beyond recouping his previous losses.
"Will you try a cast," he added, turning to Isidorus. "Our friend has
lots of money to lose?" and he lounged away to watch the game of ball in
the Gymnasium.
"Yes, take a turn, my luck is wretched to-day!" exclaimed Calphurnius.
"Come, I will stake that pile of gold on a single cast."
The Greek's whole frame was tingling with excitement--yet he was
withheld by some lingering restraint of his promise to Faustus to
abandon play. Calphurnius again rattled the dice, the cast was a
complete blank--the worst possible combination.
"'Twas lucky for me you were not playing then," he said, laughing; "but
I'll risk another if you will."
"It must only be for a small stake--a single sesterce," said the
infatuated youth, quaffing a goblet of wine. "I have given up gambling."
"All right," said his friend, "it's only for amusement that I play," and
he cast again, and laughing paid over his forfeit.
Isidorus continued to win, each time taking a sip of the strong heady
wine. The baleful enchantment was upon him.
"Double the stakes!" he cried.
"I thought you would tire of our playing like slaves with jackstones,"
replied the cool-headed Calphurnius. "This is something like play," he
continued, as they doubled every time, till the stakes were soon
enormous. The tide of fortune now turned; but the Greek had become
perfectly reckless. Conscience was dead, a demon greed for gain had
taken possession of his soul, the gaming-madness surged through his
brain. He doubled and redoubled his stakes, till before he rose he had
lost even the gold received from Valeria the night before, and was
beggared to his last denarius. With blood-shot eyes and staggering gait
he reeled away from the table, his handsome features convulsed with rage
and wicked imprecations pouring from his lips.
"Don't be so vexed about it, man," said his tormentor, for so he
regarded Calphurnius. "Better luck to-morrow. Here I'll lend you enough
to set you up. Let us have a bath, we both of us need it to quiet our
nerves."
Isidorus, in his maudlin intoxication, accepted the offer, and declared,
with much idle babble, that there was more money where that which he had
lost came from--that his services were too valuable to the state to be
overlooked--and that he knew a thing or two--that he could tell some
secrets, if he would--and much more to the same purpose.
This was just what Calphurnius wanted. He had been set on by his father,
the Prefect Naso to worm from the Greek the secrets of the Palace and
the Catacomb, and this by a series of wheedling questions he completely
succeeded in doing. With some difficulty he got his victim home after he
had extorted from him all that he cared to know. When Isidorus awoke
next morning it was with feelings of intense disgust with himself and
with all the world. He felt that he had played the fool, but how far he
knew not. He remembered that he had lost all his money, yet he found a
few coins in his purse. He felt that he had forfeited the confidence of
his new patron Adauctus, of the Empress, and even was undeserving of the
gratitude or respect of the beautiful freed-woman, Callirhoë, whose
father he had restored. He had learned that there was a plot on foot
against them all. Indeed he had an impression that he had somehow added
to their peril by his indiscreet revelations. He determined to warn them
of their danger and try to save them.
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