Ammianus Marcellinus Res Gestae 28.4.21

[21] Some of these, though few in number, shrink from the name of gamblers, and therefore desire to be called rather tesserarii, ¹ persons who differ from each other only as much as thieves do from brigands. But this must be admitted, that while all friendships at Rome are lukewarm, those alone which are formed at the gambling table, as if they were gained by glorious toil, have a bond of union and are united by complete firmness of exceeding affection; whence some members of these companies are found to be so harmonious that you would take them for the brothers Quintilius. ² And so you may see a man of low station, who is skilled in the secrets of dice-playing, walking abroad like Porcius Cato ³ after his unexpected and unlooked-for defeat for the praetorship, with a set expression of dignity and sorrow because at some great banquet or assemblage a former proconsul was given a higher place of honour.