[Footnote: A
gambler was called _aleator_, and sometimes his implement was spoken of
as _alea_, which meant literally gaming. When Suetonius makes C?sar
say, before crossing the Rubicon, "The die is cast," he uses the words
_Jacta alea est!_]
The games of the Romans range from the innocent tossing of huckle-bones
to the frightful scenes of the gladiatorial show. Some were celebrated
in the open air, and others within the enclosures of the circus or the
amphitheatre. Some were gay, festive, and abandoned, and others were
serious and tragic. Some were said to have been instituted in the
earliest days by Romulus, Servius Tullius, or Tarquinius Priscus, and
others were imported from abroad or grew up naturally as the nation
progressed in experience or in acquaintance with foreign peoples. The
great increase of games and festivals and their enormous cost were
signs of approaching trouble for the republic, and foretold the
terrible days of the empire, when the rabblement of the capital,
accustomed to be amused and fed by their despotic and corrupt rulers,
should cry in the streets: "Give us bread for nothing and games
forever!" It was gradually educating the populace to think of nothing
but enjoyment and to abhor honest labor, and we can imagine the
corruption that must have been brought into politics when honors were
so expensive that a respectable gladiatorical show cost more than
thirty-five thousand dollars (?7,200).
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