Board and Gambling Games of Ancient Rome
Long before the rise of Rome, people engaged in gambling. The oldest known dice were discovered by archaeologists in northern India, in the ancient state of Harappa. These dice, made of baked clay, date back to the 3rd millennium BC. The Romans likely adopted dice games from the Greeks, who were themselves avid gamblers, using the same six-sided dice with pips on the faces that are familiar to us today.
The Romans made their dice from dried, cleaned, and polished sheep bones. Different combinations even had their own names, with the best known as “Venus” and the worst as “dogs.” A special cup for the dice, which they were shaken before being thrown, was called a “Turricula” (little tower). The most famous version of the game involved each player throwing three dice, with the winnings equal to the difference in the number of points rolled.
Romans also played the simplest of games, such as “micatio”. Two players would simultaneously show several fingers on one hand, trying to guess the total number of fingers shown by both players. They also played “heads or tails” or “capita aut navim” — head or ship. One side of the small Roman coin depicted a rostrum, a ship’s bow, and the other…
