![]() But this game board is just as interesting, perhaps more so in that it demonstrates just how far-flung these games were – to the very edges of the Roman Empire. Initially, when I thought of a game board for this week's History of the Classical World in 100 Objects, I turned to the board scratched into the steps of the Basilica Iulia in the Forum at Rome. Perhaps most famously, Julius Caesar – himself an avid gambler – was said to have proclaimed, on his decision to cross the Rubicon and march upon Rome, alea iacta est – "the die has been cast" – a metaphor taken straight from the Roman passion for gambling with dice. Many Romans enjoyed playing at dice and often gambled, sometimes paying out huge sums: according to Suetonius, biographer of the Roman emperors, the emperors Augustus, Nero and Claudius were passionate dicers, and Claudius even wrote a book about the rules of gambling with dice. The second image above, from a bar in Pompeii, shows two men seated and playing at dice while two others look on – suggesting that dicing was a common feature of bar life. The worst throw, the Canis (or "dog"), was probably a throw of all 1s. This was not about simply attaining the highest number: the best throw, known as the Venus, probably required each die to show a different number (that is, if there were four dice, a 1, 3, 4 and 6 would be a Venus). When used by themselves, players would throw their dice in turn – four dice per player was a common number (especially in knucklebones or tali) – and the best throw would win the round. Although gambling with dice was illegal except on the Saturnalia (a winter festival in which Roman customs and norms were overturned), the sheer number of dice found in Roman sites around the world and the literary evidence testify to its enduring popularity, whatever the laws said. ![]() ![]() Dice ( tesserae in Latin) were used either in accompaniment with board games or on their own. These Roman-era dice look remarkably familiar to a modern eye: six-sided, with opposite sides adding up to seven, as with modern dice. After last entry's board game, dice are a natural follow-on. ![]()
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