Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Cottabus

Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary, and Greek Lexicon (Rich, 1849)

COTT'ABUS (κότταβος). A game of Sicilian origin, and a very favourite after-dinner amusement amongst the young men of Athens. It was played in various ways, more or less complicated; but the simple and ordinary manner consisted in casting the heel-tap of a wine cup into a large metal vessel, or upon the floor, whilst the player affected to discover the sincerity of his mistress's affections by the particular sound of the splash produced by the wine in its fall; hence the word is applied to sounds of similar kind, but produced by other means, as the lash of a whip. Plaut. Trinc. iv. 3. 4.