1. Ancient Roman Fun and Games
By: Lianna DeBor

2. A few popular games in ancient Rome…
Tali
Tesserae
Tabula
Mancala
Latrunculi

3. Tali Knucklebones Gambling Game
sheep or goat
knucklebones
Also made from brass, silver, gold, ivory, marble, wood, bone, bronze, glass, terracotta, and precious gems
Four sides; each with a 1, 3, 4 or 6 on it
 Found in Pompeii

4. Tali Continued 1st two are glass 3rd is lead
Four Tali dropped from a moderate height onto a table or the ground. Score came from side facing up.
There are three scoring methods for Tali: - Simple Senio Extended
Each getting a bit more intricate
Found in Athens

5. Tesserae
Numbers on dice arranged so that only 2 opposite sides would equal 7
Shaken in a cup then tossed
Bets were placed
The government restricted gambling because it became such a problem; so people started playing gambling games secretly

6. Tabula
“Backgammon”
Tabula was one of the games primarily responsible for the gambling problem in Rome.

7. Tabula rules Each player has 15 round playing chips
Pieces enter from square 1 and travel counter clockwise
3 dice are thrown, three numbers determine movements between 1 and 3 pieces
Player must use whole value of throw if possible
If player lands on a spot that already has one of the opponents pieces on it, the opponent’s piece was removed from the board and had to re-enter from square 1
If a player has 2 or more pieces on a spot the opponent can not capture their pieces, the spot was ‘closed’ to the opponent
Can not enter 2nd half of board ‘till all pieces have entered the board
No piece may exit the board until all pieces enter last quarter of board

8. Succession of these game boards led up to the Tabula board

9. Race game, Trying to get the most stones in your big square
Mancala
Oldest board game of all
Race game, Trying to get the most stones in your big square
Common Mancala board

10. Latrunculi Most popular thinking game
Name comes from latrones meaning mercenaries, referring to soldiers
 Most common size; 8 by 12