That the barbarians were also given to gaming, whether or not they learned it from their Roman conquerors, is proved by Tacitus, who states that the Germans were passionately fond of dicing, so much so, indeed, that, having lost everything, they would even stake their personal liberty. Centuries later, during the middle ages, dicing became the favourite pastime of the knights, and both dicing schools (scholae deciorum) and gilds of dicers existed. After the downfall of feudalism the famous German mercenaries called landsknechts established a reputation as the most notorious dicing gamblers of their time. Many of the dice of the period were curiously carved in the images of men and beasts. In France both knights and ladies were given to dicing, which repeated legislation, including interdictions on the part of St Louis in 1254 and 1256, did not abolish. In Japan, China, Korea, India and other Asiatic countries dice have always been popular and are so still.
See Foster’s Encyclopaedia of Indoor Games (1903); Raymond’s Illustriertes Knobelbrevier (Oranienburg, 1888); Les Jeux des Anciens, by L. Becq de Fouquières (Paris, 1869); Das Knöchelspiel der Alten, by Bolle (Wismar, 1886); Die Spiele der Griechen und Römer, by W. Richter (Leipzig, 1887); Raymond’s Alte und neue Würfelspiele; Chinese Games with Dice, by Stewart Culin (Philadelphia, 1889); Korean Games, by Stewart Culin (Philadelphia, 1895).
DICETO, RALPH DE (d. c. 1202), dean of St Paul’s, London, and chronicler, is first mentioned in 1152, when he received the archdeaconry of Middlesex. He was probably born between 1120 and 1130; of his parentage and nationality we know nothing. The common statement that he derived his surname from Diss in Norfolk is a mere conjecture; Dicetum may equally well be a Latinized form of Dissai, or Dicy, or Dizy, place names which are found in Maine, Picardy, Burgundy and Champagne. In 1152 Diceto was already a master of arts; presumably he had studied at Paris. His reputation for learning and integrity stood high; he was regarded with respect and favour by Arnulf of Lisieux and Gilbert Foliot of Hereford (afterwards of London), two of the most eminent bishops of their time. Quite naturally, the archdeacon took in the Becket question the same side as his friends. Although his narrative is colourless, and although he was one of those who showed some sympathy for Becket at the council of Northampton (1164), the correspondence of Diceto shows that he regarded the archbishop’s conduct as ill-considered, and that he gave advice to those whom Becket regarded as his chief enemies. Diceto was selected, in 1166, as the envoy of the English bishops when they protested against the excommunications launched by Becket. But, apart from this episode, which he characteristically omits to record, he remained in the background. The natural impartiality of his intellect was accentuated by a certain timidity, which is apparent in his writings no less than in his life. About 1180 he became dean of St Paul’s. In this office he distinguished himself by careful management of the estates, by restoring the discipline of the chapter, and by building at his own expense a deanery-house. A scholar and a man of considerable erudition, he showed a strong preference for historical studies; and about the time when he was preferred to the deanery he began to collect materials for the history of his own times. His friendships with Richard Fitz Nigel, who succeeded Foliot in the see of London, with William Longchamp, the chancellor of Richard I., and with Walter of Coutances, the archbishop of Rouen, gave him excellent opportunities of collecting information. His two chief works, the Abbreviationes Chronicorum and the Ymagines Historiarum, cover the history of the world from the birth of Christ to the year 1202. The former, which ends in 1147, is a work of learning and industry, but almost entirely based upon extant sources. The latter, beginning as a compilation from Robert de Monte and the letters of Foliot, becomes an original authority about 1172, and a contemporary record about 1181. In precision and fulness of detail the Ymagines are inferior to the chronicles of the so-called Benedict and of Hoveden. Though an annalist, Diceto is careless in his chronology; and the documents which he incorporates, while often important, are selected on no principle. He has little sense of style; but displays considerable insight when he ventures to discuss a political situation. For this reason, and on account of the details with which they supplement the more important chronicles of the period, the Ymagines are a valuable though a secondary source.
See W. Stubbs’ edition of the Historical Works of Diceto (Rolls ed. 1876, 2 vols.), and especially the introduction. The second volume contains minor works which are the barest compendia of facts taken from well-known sources. Diceto’s fragmentary Domesday of the capitular estates has been edited by Archdeacon Hale in The Domesday of St Paul’s, pp. 109 ff. (Camden Society, 1858).
DICEY, EDWARD (1832- ), English writer, son of T. E. Dicey of Claybrook Hall, Leicestershire, was born in 1832. Educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he took mathematical and classical honours, he became an active journalist, contributing largely to the principal reviews. He was called to the bar in 1875, became a bencher of Gray’s Inn in 1896, and was treasurer in 1903-1904. He was connected with the Daily Telegraph as leader writer and then as special correspondent, and after a short spell in 1870 as editor of the Daily News he became editor of the Observer, a position which he held until 1889. Of his many books on foreign affairs perhaps the most important are his England and Egypt (1884), Bulgaria, the Peasant State (1895), The Story of the Khedivate (1902), and The Egypt of the Future (1907). He was created C.B. in 1886.
His brother Albert Venn Dicey (b. 1835), English jurist, was educated at Balliol College, Oxford, where he took a first class in the classical schools in 1858. He was called to the bar at the Inner Temple in 1863. He held fellowships successively at Balliol, Trinity and All Souls’, and from 1882 to 1909 was Vinerian professor of law. He became Q.C. in 1890. His chief works are the Introduction to the Study of the Law of the Constitution (1885, 6th ed. 1902), which ranks as a standard work on the subject; England’s Case against Home Rule (1886); A Digest of the Law of England with Reference to the Conflict of Laws (1896), and Lectures on the Relation between Law and Public Opinion in England during the 19th century (1905).
DICHOTOMY (Gr. δίχα, apart, τέμνειν, to cut), literally a cutting asunder, the technical term for a form of logical division, consisting in the separation of a genus into two species, one of which has and the other has not, a certain quality or attribute. Thus men may be thus divided into white men, and men who are not white; each of these may be subdivided similarly. On the principle of contradiction this division is both exhaustive and exclusive; there can be no overlapping, and no members of the original genus or the lower groups are omitted. This method of classification, though formally accurate, has slight value in the exact sciences, partly because at every step one of the two groups is merely negatively characterized and therefore incapable of real subdivision; it is useful, however, in setting forth clearly the gradual descent from the most inclusive genus (summum genus) through species to the lowest class (infima species), which is divisible only into individual persons or things. (See further [Division].) In astronomy the term is used for the aspect of the moon or of a planet when apparently half illuminated, so that its disk has the form of a semicircle.