Roman game from Canovium, slate, pebble & paste, c. 100 AD
18.5cm (w) x 11cm (h)
Llandudno Museum, Wales
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Unknown Roman game from Canovium, slate, pebble & paste, c. 100 AD 18.5cm (w) x 11cm (h) Llandudno Museum, Wales Initially, when I thought of a game board for this week's History of the Classical World in 100 Objects, I turned to the board scratched into the steps of the Basilica Iulia in the Forum at Rome. But this game board is just as interesting, perhaps more so in that it demonstrates just how far-flung these games were – to the very edges of the Roman Empire. Found at the Roman military fort of Canovium (modern Caerhun), this simple board game shows that everyone from the forum at Rome to North Wales in Britannia – conquered by the Romans in 77 CE – was hooked on gaming. Made from a slab of local slate with an approximate grid scratched onto the surface, it was probably used for the game of latrunculi (or more properly, ludus latrunculorum), which translates into English as "a game of robbers" – probably similar to chess or draughts, with the "robbers" like modern pawns, moving across the board to take the opponents' counters. Seneca the Younger (c. 4BC – 65CE), tutor of the emperor Nero and prolific writer, mentions the game in one of his letters to a friend: anticipating his friend's objections that he's not taking things seriously, he writes, "I know what you're going to say: we're just playing games!" (latrunculis ludimus, Ep. 106.11). It's a demonstration of the fact that the ludus latrunculorum had – both literally and figuratively – taken over the Roman world, from the court of Nero to the frontiers of Wales.
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AuthorEmily Hauser is a classicist and researcher at Harvard and author of historical fiction recovering the lost women of the ancient world, including FOR THE MOST BEAUTIFUL and FOR THE WINNER. Archives
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