Roman Dice Games, Rules etc.

[Lucius Duccius Rufinus]

Rather curious about roman dice games right now, not too sure why (the gambler in me probably!) i've been playing the game twos and fives with some of the guys in my group, but im wondering if we know about any other ancient roman Dice games?! Curious to hear anyones input into this!

Also im wondering were these games played with cups? mats?

Would they always have been played for money? just for fun? and was there an age limit to what age a roman could gamble? (thinking like the modern 18+ to enter a casino).

Discuss

[jvrjenivs]

Dice games were very popular. Play for (roman) money.
To garantee that all player play fair, use a Turricula.

(see: link from old RAT)

[Lucius Duccius Rufinus]

wow i've never heard of a Turricula. Very impressive, might have to give that a bash!!

In terms of how Roman Die were made / what they were made out of typically? i've got my eyes on an original silver die on ebay just now (hence whats prompted me to ask some questions) but im guessing they were also made out of bronze, i'd imagine bone would also be authentic?

[jvrjenivs]

Adrian has some nice bone dices for sale, which, I think, would be perfect for Legionairy impression.

[Andy]

One game that we play is Jactus. Four die are used. We put a coin into the pool at the start of each game, and continue to put in if a 6 is rolled (equal number of coins to equal number of 6's, or four coins in if four 1's are rolled.) Winner takes all if each die rolled shos a different value.

http://www.roman-britain.org/java/jactus.htm

We have also played a game throwing a handful of die aiming to get as many into the narrow spout of a glass jar. Winner takes the total number of coins on all die that land in the jar. Put into pool the total value of die that do not land inside the jar.