Dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

TALUS. TALUS. 1096
museum at Naples, in which the artist, instead of
the sole of a sandal, has made the straps unite in a
rosette under the middle of the foot (see the woodcut), evidently intending by this elegant device to
represent the messenger of the gods as borne
throughspace without touching the ground.
Besides Mercury the artists of antiquity also
represented Perseus as wearing winged sandals
(Ml1on. olVath/. iii. 28; Inghirami, Vasi Filltli, i.
tav. 70, iv. tav. 166); because he put on those
of Mercury, when he went on his aerial voyage
to the rescue of Andromeda. (Ovid. Met. iv.
665-677; Hes. Scut. 216-220; Eratosth. Catast.
22; Hygin. Poet. Ast-ro. ii. 12.) The same appendage was ascribed to Minerva, according to
one view of her origin, viz. as the daughter of
Pallas. (Cic. de Nat. Deoe. iii. 23; Tzetzes, Scwil.
in Lycoph. 355.) [J. Y.]
TALARUS (radXapon). [CALATHUS.] H. 1. xxxiv. 8. s. 19.) A fractured marble group
TALA'SSIO. [MAVTRIMoNIuM, p. 743, b.] of the same kind, preserved in the British Museum,
TALENTUM. [LIBRA, 2d art.; PONDEiRA; exhibits one of the two boys in the act of biting
NUMeasus.] the arm of his play-fellow so as to present a lively
TA'LIO, from Talis, signifies an equivalent, but illustration of the account in Homer of the fatal
it is used only in the sense of a punishment or quarrel of Patroclus. (II. xxiii. 87, 88.) To play
penalty the same in kind and degree as the mis- at this game was sometimes called 7rerTaAOi'e,v
chief which the guilty person has done to the body because five bones or other objects of a similar kind
of another. A provision as to Talio occurred in were employed (Pollux, 1. c.); and this number is
the Twelve Tables: Si membrum rupit ni cum eo retained among ourselves.
pacit talio esto. (Festus, s. v. Talionis.) This pas- Whilst the tali were without artificial marks, the
sage does not state what Talio is. Cato as quoted game was entirely one of skill; and in ancient no
by Priscian (vi. p. 710, Putsch) says: Si quis less than in modern times, it consisted not merely
membrum rulpit aut os fregit, talione proximus in catching the five bones on the back of the hand
cognatus nlciscatur. The law of Talio was probably as shown in the wood-cut, but in a great variety of
enforced by the individual or his friends: it is not exercises requiring quickness, agility, and accuracy
probable that the penalty was inflicted under a of sight. When the sides of the bone were
decision of a court of justice. It seems likely that marked with different values, the game became
it bore some analogy to the permission to kill an one of chance. [ALEA; TESSERA.] The two ends
adulterer and adultress in certain cases, which the were left blank, because the bone could not rest
Julia Lex confirmed; and if so, the law would upon either of them on. account of its curvature.
define the circumstances under which an injured The four remaining sides were marked with the
person or his cognati might take this talio. The numbers 1, 3, 4, 6; 1 and 6 being on two oppopunishment of death for death was talio; but it is site sides, and 3 and 4 on the other two opposite
not said that the cognati could inflict death for sides. The Greek and Latin names of the numdeath. Talio, as a punishment, was a part of the bers were as follows (Pollux, I. c.; Eustath.
Mosaic law: " breach for breach, eye for eye, in Homs. I1. xxiii. 88; Sueton. August. 71; Mart.
tooth for tooth: as he hath caused a blemish in a xiii. 1. 6):- 1. Moads, Es, Kticve, X oe (Brunck,
man, so shall it be done to him again." (Levit. Anal. i. 35, 242)-; Ion. O'fv/1: Unzio, Yulturizss,
xxiv. 20; Rein, Das Cr-isminal-ec/t derl Rinzer, pp. canis (Propert. iv. 9. 17; Ovid. Asrt. Asmat. ii.
37, 358, 8'16, 915.) [G. L]. 205, Fast. ii. 473): 3. Tpids: Ternio; 4. Tsepds:
TALUS (dTa'pdyaXos), a huckle-bone. The Quaten;:o; 6.'Eads, /4Ir-sT, K.ot: Senio.
huckle-bones of sheep and goats have often been As the bone is broader in one direction than in
found in Greek and Roman tombs, both real, and the other, it was said to fall upright or prone
imitated in ivory, bronze, glass, and agate. Those (pOpos i nrpm*'vs, rectus ant pronus), according as it
of the antelope (8optcd3ezoi) were sought as objects rested on the narrow or the broad side. (Plut.
of elegance and curiosity. (Theoph. C/lar. 5.; Symspos. Prob. p. 1209, ed. Steph.; Cic. de Fin,
Athen. v. p. 193, f.) They were used to play with iii. 16.)
from the earliest times, principally by women and Two persons played together at this game, using
children (Plut. Alcib. p. 350), occasionally by old four bones, which they threw upi into the air, or
men. (Cic. de Senect. 16.) A painting by Alex- emptied out of a dice-box [FRITILLUS], and obander of Athens, found at Resina, represents two serving the numbers on the, uppermost sides. The
women occupied with this game. One of them, numbers on the four sides of the four bones admitted
having thrown the bones upwards into the air, has of thirty-five different combinations. The lowest
caught three of them on the back of her hand. (Ant. throw of all was four aces ( jacit voltorios qitatuor,
d'Erc. i. tav. 1.) See the following woodcut, and Plaut. Cure. ii. 3. 78). But the value of a throw
compare the account of the game in Pollux (ix. c. 7). (B60os, jacltLs,) was not in all cases the sum of
Polygnotus executed a similar work at Delphi, re- the four numbers turnied up. The highest in value
presenting the two daughters of Pandarus thus em- was that called Venus, or jaclzus Venereus (Plaut.
ployed (7railoe'cas dorpaydAois, Paus. x. 30. ~ 1). Asin. v. 2. 55; Cic. de Div. ii. 59; Sueton. 1. c.),
But a much more celebrated production was the in which, the numbers cast up were all different.group of two naked boys, executed in bronze by (Mart. xiv. 14), the sum of them being only four-Polycletus, and called the Aslragalizontes. (Plin. teen. It was by obtaining this throw that the king
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