Dice used for gambling have been around for a very long time. The Romans were particularly noted for “casting the bones”.
"Hidden History" is a diary series that explores forgotten and little-known areas of history.
Astragaloi gaming dice
History
The earliest manufactured game dice that we know about were Middle Eastern, and were used over 5,000 years ago to play games like the Egyptian Senet and the Sumerian Royal Game of Ur. But these were not the cubical six-sided dice we know today: the Egyptians used “stick dice” in which a split stick was flat on one side and rounded on the other, while the Sumerians used pyramidical dice with four faces which landed with one of the points facing up, two of which were marked.
We know, however, that dice games reach much further back than that—perhaps all the way to prehistory. The earliest “dice” were unmodified ankle bones from sheep, goats, pigs or deer (known in Greek as an “astragalos”, plural “astragaloi”, and also known in Latin as a “talus”, plural “tali”). These took the form of a rough extruded rectangle with rounded ends, and when thrown they could land with one of four faces pointing up. And therein was the makings of gambling games. These bones have been found as artifacts from ancient cultures all over the world, and some of the earliest written stories tell of “tossing the bones”. (Another name for them was “knucklebones”, despite the fact that the astragalos bone is found in the ankle joint, not in the toes or fingers.)
It is likely that the practice first appeared as a form of divination or oracle-reading which involved sacrificing an animal and examining its internal organs. The astragaloi bones would be tossed, and each combination of faces would indicate a section of an oracular text that would be consulted, sort of like a horoscope, to reveal the answer or advice given by the gods. This was afterwards turned into a device for gambling.
Astragaloi have also long been used for a children’s game that was similar to modern “jacks”, in which a player had to toss a bone or bones and either snatch objects like pebbles or shells off the ground while it was in the air or catch the falling bones on the back of their hand.
The most complete rulesets that we have for a gambling game with goat or sheep bones comes from Roman sources. The Greeks and Romans were inveterate gamblers and dice games were a part of many myths and legends: the playwright Sophocles declares that gambling dice were invented by the Greeks during the siege of Troy, Plato attributes dice as a gift to humanity from the Egyptian god Thoth, while the New Testament describes Roman soldiers “casting lots” for Yeshua Ben Yosef’s clothing while he was being crucified. (Gambling was always technically illegal in the Roman world and was considered to be a “moral failing”, and the Senate passed one law after another banning these games, but such laws were always openly flouted and ignored, even by Emperors.)
Romans recognized that the talus, because of its irregular shape, had differing probabilities for each of the four sides to fall face-up. They not only had different names for each side, but assigned different point values according to which sides it landed on. The best-known of the Roman dice-gambling games was Tali, from the Latin name for the ankle bones.
Equipment
To play Tali, you need four astragaloi bones, and some gambling coins or chips.
Ancient people had no problem obtaining these bones from the animals that they slaughtered for food. Modern people don’t have it so easy, but the bones are still obtainable for those who search. There are sellers on eBay and Etsy who offer authentic goat or sheep talus bones (most of these come from Mongolia, where they are known as Shagai).
My set of astragaloi were 3d-printed in plastic.
In a pinch, you can use the pyramidical d4 dice from Dungeons and Dragons. This, however, gives equal probability for each side to land “up”, which alters the original odds in the game. The Romans would occasionally play Tali with six-sided cubic dice that had two sides left blank (called “tesserae”), but this also altered the odds. (This didn’t bother the Romans, since they believed that the gods controlled every roll of the dice.) To play an authentic Roman game of Tali, though, you need to have astragaloi bones. (The Romans would sometimes, however, carve artificial tali out of ivory, soapstone, or wood.)
Two of the sides on a talus are broader than the others, making them statistically more likely to land face-up (though there are indications in the ancient inscriptions that the side which counted was the one that landed face-down). These were marked by the Romans with a 3 and 4, while the other two sides were marked with 1 and 6 (the rounded ends were 2 and 5, but they did not come into play since the dice could not land with the end facing up). The dice sides also had names: 1 (the concave narrow side) was “Dog”, 3 (the broad concave side) was “Hole”, 4 (the broad convex side) “Belly” and 6 (the convex narrow side) “Vulture”. Sometimes the narrow sides 1 and 6 were ground flat.
Most ancient gaming astragaloi were not marked, but a few sets have been found which were engraved on each side with the appropriate Roman numerals or number of dots.
Tali dice with each side marked
To Play
Since Tali was played in the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire over a period of several centuries, there was natural variation in the rules according to the particular time period and also probably by location. This ruleset is for a variant that was played in Rome at the time of Augustus Caesar.
Each Player begins by placing one coin into the central pot. (Non-gamblers can use poker chips for points.)
Each Player then goes in turn to shake and toss the four tali onto the ground or into a shallow bowl. (The Romans also used dice cups and dice towers.)
If the four dice come up with all four numbered faces the same (3,3,3,3 or 4,4,4,4 or 6,6,6,6) this is known as a “Vulture”, and each Player must put another two coins into the pot. The exception is if the roll is “1,1,1,1”—this is known as a “Dog”, and each Player must then put three coins in the pot.
If a throw shows a “6” face on any of the four dice, no matter how many, that is known, logically enough, as a “Six”, and each Player puts one coin into the pot. (If the throw is four 6’s, however, that becomes a Vulture instead, and will cost each Player two coins in the pot.)
If any other combination is rolled, no coins are added.
Each Player rolls once. The dice are then passed to the next Player.
Play continues round and round, with the pot getting bigger, until someone throws a roll of 1,3,4,6 (each face is different). This is known as a “Venus”, and it is the winning roll which entitles the thrower to collect the central pot.
A Venus roll for the win
In some variations, a Player who rolls a 1 (a “Dog”) on any dice during his turn has to put another coin in the pot for each 1 that he has rolled (unless he rolled four 1’s, when everyone including him has to pay three coins). In another variant, a Player who does not like his roll can pay another coin into the pot to buy the right to roll the bones over again.
NOTE: As some of you already know, all of my diaries here are draft chapters for a number of books I am working on. So I welcome any corrections you may have, whether it's typos or places that are unclear or factual errors. I think of y'all as my pre-publication editors and proofreaders. ;)
