Dice

The Romans had many games that we still play today. Children, for instance, played with dolls and animals made of fired clay. They had seesaws, kites, balls and other toys. They even had yo-yos!

Grown-ups also played games. One of the best-known games was a kind of draughts, also called checkers. They also played dice games for which they used both sides of a board called a tabula lusoria.

The dice shown here are made of bone. The numbers 1 to 6 were carved on the faces.

The Romans used astragals, which are similar to dice but are made from the leg bones of sheep and other animals. They painted figures or words on each face to tell them apart. The Romans threw four astragals at once: The best throw was called “Venus”, and the worst was called “dog”.