Parent and Child

At some point, it now appears, early in the third century AD, a Christian apologist named Minucius Felix published his Octavius, a religious dialogue among three friends that climaxes in predictable fashion with the conversion of the pagan interlocutor. ¹ The debate unfolds as the participants stroll along the beach outside Ostia, but in its early stages Minucius pauses to sketch the following scene:

Then our party came to a place where several small boats, having been drawn up on the shore, rested above ground on oaken rollers so as to prevent rot. There we saw a group of small boys, who were eagerly vying with one another in a game of ducks and drakes. This is what the game is all about: you choose a well-rounded shell from the shore - one that has been rubbed smooth by the pounding of the waves - and holding it horizontally in your fingers while stooping as low to the ground as you can get, you send it spinning across the water. Once thrown, it should either skim the surface of the sea, gliding smoothly along, or conversely shave the tops of the waves, only to resurface time and time again. Among the boys, the one whose shell has gone the farthest and skipped the most declares himself the winner. ²