From the earliest days these
were used chiefly by women and children, who used five at a time, which
they threw into the air and then tried to catch on the back of the
hand, their irregular form making the success the result of
considerable skill. The bones were also made to contribute to a variety
of amusements requiring agility and accuracy; but after a while the
element of chance was introduced. The sides were marked with different
values, and the victor was he who threw the highest value, fourteen,
the numbers cast being each different from the rest. This throw
obtained at a symposium or drinking party caused a person to be
appointed king of the feast.
One of the oldest games of the world is that called by the Romans
little marauders (_latrunculi_), because it was played like draughts or
checkers, there being two sets of "men," white and red, representing
opposed soldiers, and the aim of each player being to gain advantage
over the other, as soldiers do in a combat. This game is as old as
Homer, and is represented in Egyptian tombs, which are of much greater
antiquity than any Grecian monuments. In this game, too, skill was all
that was needed at first, but in time spice was given by the addition
of chance, and dice (_tessera_, a die) were used as in backgammon; but
gambling was deemed disreputable, and was forbidden during the
republic, except at the time of the Saturnalia, though both Greeks and
Romans permitted aged men to amuse themselves in that way.
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