Since the human being stood on his legs and evolved in his reasoning, the playful element has always been present. And it is that since we are children, playing, having fun, training mental and physical skills, has been natural part of our development as people.
Nowadays, the game has evolved to the point of merging with technology. options like betting.guru they allow us to immerse ourselves in the fascinating world of gambling, from the comfort of home. But although it seems to us something of this era, the reality is that Traditional games of chance have been around the world for hundreds, even thousands of years.
If we immerse ourselves, for example, in the distant cultures of Ancient Greece and Rome, we find that their inhabitants already enjoyed this kind of game, and incorporated it as part of their social dynamics.
Today we have been encouraged to investigate tell you what the most popular games were in Ancient Rome, and how they were played. Can you come with us? Well, let’s begin!
The symbolism of games in Ancient Rome
Much has been written about the Romans’ taste for the pleasures of life. Banquets, intimate gatherings, gladiator fights… they are all things that are associated with entertainment and fun. Well, games, and especially those of chance, also add to this taste. The Romans had a large number of games, in which they used to bet.
However, although it was a collective taste, it was not well seen. In fact, it was an activity classified as immoral on a social scale. In many cases it was even considered illegal, and in several periods of the empire there were attempts to restrict it. Now, this did not prevent even the emperors from succumbing to the pleasure of the game, in which great fortunes were moved. Join us to know the most popular.
The most popular games of Ancient Rome
1. Dice or alloy
If we talk about chance, the Romans were true experts. Y the king of their games were the still popular dice, which in Latin were known as Alea.
His invention is attributed to Palamedes, the son of Nauplius, a great fighter in the Trojan War. He is an interesting character in the history of the empire, since very useful creations such as measurements, weight and even part of the alphabet are attributed to him. Greek. But the invention of the alea was one of the most valued by his contemporaries. What is said about it is that he created this way of having fun, as a way to avoid anxiety, sadness and the feeling of hunger after each battle.
2. The Micatio
Another of the games with which the Romans entertained themselves for hours was the popular micatio. It is perhaps the most similar antecedent of the fun “rock, paper or scissors” of our days. On three, each of the two players would show a hand, but the number of fingers extended would vary. At the same time, they would both declare how many fingers they expected there to be in total.
It was said in Ancient Rome that man was completely honest, when you could play micatio with him in total darkness, without risk of being deceived.
3. The twelfth scripta
Another well-known and widely used game among the Romans is the duodecim scripta. Somewhat more complex than dice and micatio, it was widely played among soldiers. The objective of each game is that Each player takes all fifteen of their checkers from the beginning of the circuit to the end, and then removes them from the board. They range from box I to XXIV. The winner is the player who removes the pieces from the board the fastest.
4. The latrunculi
If you know the chess game, surely the latrunculi will be fairly familiar to you. It is one of the most intellectual games, one of those that became popular in Ancient Rome. The challenge for the contenders is to capture all of their opponent’s pieces.
Depending on the dynamics of the game, they will have to move orthogonally, over any distance and as long as it is unobstructed. A piece is captured when it is trapped between two opposing pieces on adjacent squares in a range or file. The captured piece is removed from the board. Would you dare to play it?
5. The table
The tabula is a Greco-Roman board game, which is considered to be the direct antecedent of the current backgammon. In fact, their boards are almost identical, with 24 spaces, 12 on each side. It was usual to play on the boards that were found regularly in taverns.
As for the format, there were two players who competed, with fifteen pieces each. They had to move them in the same direction around the board, based on the roll of three dice.
In short, many of our modern customs derive from the culture of Ancient Rome. as you will see, we also owe them the fun of gambling.