The passion for gambling in ancient Rome

Gambling in ancient Rome, despite being prohibited by law and condemned by moralists, was very popular among Romans of all social conditions, and also among legionaries. The most popular games were:

• "Par et impar"
• "Capita aut navia"
• Knucklebones
• Dice

PAR ET IMPAR

The game consisted of having to guess the number of objects (bones, nuts, pebbles) that the other player had inside his fist. In particular if the number of these objects was odd or even. Spectators could bet on the ammount of objects held in the hand.

CAPITA AUT NAVIA

It was the equivalent of our "heads or tails". The coin usually used rapresented the head of the God Two-Faced Janus on the obverse and a ship on the reverse.

KNUCKLEBONES

The knucklebones were usually small sheep bones in the shape of an irregular cube with four faces, long and narrow, irregular and different from each other.

The game consisted of throwing four knucklebones into the air and betting on how they would be arranged, or, if there were numbers engraved on them, guessing the total value of the faces that came out. Obviously the worst combination was 1; 1; 1; 1 (it was called the "dog's roll" or "vulture's roll"), while the best one was the one that saw four different numbers come out (called the "Venus' roll"). Cheaters already existed then and, to make their lives more difficult, it was made compulsory to use a "fritilus" (a semi-conical cup).

DICE

It was the most popular game. The dice, called "tesserae" by the Romans, could be made by bone, ivory, amber and had the 6 faces marked with numbers, as today. Also in this case we bet on the sum given by the roll of the dice (always done with the fritilus).

These games were, as mentioned, prohibited by law since the Republican age, and were only allowed during the Saturnalia holidays (festivals at the end of December in honor of the god Saturn). The "Edili" magistrates monitored compliance with this prohibition. Obviously it was possible for one citizen to denounce another. For this crime the most common punishment consisted of a fine equal to four times the bet, but in rare cases a citizen could be inprisoned or led to forced labor. Nonetheless, real clandestine gambling dens were hidden in the back rooms of "hotels" and taverns.

The historian Svetonius tells us, but we don't know whether rightly or wrongly, that the Emperor Nero went as far as betting 400 thousand sesterces per throw (about 450 years' salary of a simple Roman legionary).

Bibliography: Personal rework of the article:""The passion for gaming in ancient Rome" by Miguel Ángel Novillo López