Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Mandra

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Rich, Anthony (1849). The illustrated companion to the Latin dictionary, and Greek lexicon. p. vi. OCLC 894670115. https://archive.org/details/illustratedcompa00rich. 

MANDRA (μανδρα). Properly, an enclosure for cattle, a fold, stall, or pen; whence the word is transferred to the animals themselves, and more especially to a crowd of carts with their cattle and drivers, forming a stoppage in a public thoroughfare. Juv. iii. 237. Mart. v. 22.

2. A division or space marked out by lines, on which the pieces moved, in a draught board (tabula latruncularia, Mart. vii. 72. Auct. Pan. in Pis. 190.) The first notion of the word implies that the mandra was a square enclosure, like a sheepfold, similar in some degree to those by which our draught and chess boards are divided; and that it was not formed by parallel lines (duodecim scripta), like the backgammon board (see the illustration s. ABACUS, 2.); but as all the works which represent persons playing at this game have the board only presented in profile, and no original has been discovered, it is impossible to speak decisively respecting the manner in which its surface was marked out.