Pompei 12 tracce di vita intorno al denaro

Step 2 - Stabian Baths

Stabian Baths. Entrance to the baths. ©SSBAPES

In the corridor accessing the female sector of the Stabian Baths, an inscription celebrated a significant amount of money "I won at dice in the town of Nocera 855 and half denarii, and without cheating".

The demon of gambling

CIL IV 2119

855 and half denarii, and without cheating

Comment

These winnings are truly remarkable when one considers the prices of essential goods.

Gambling was essentially done with dice (tesserae), similar to ours, or with animal ankle bones (tali), which had only four faces.

Two or three at a time were cast by dropping them from a dice-cup (fritillus) to prevent cheating.

Incredible fortunes were lost playing dice, as the sources point out, so much so that the game was severely limited by legal regulations, which were however probably mostly ignored, given that emperors liked gambling too.

We know that Augustus lost twenty thousand sesterces in a single game and that Nero bet no less than four hundred sesterces every single time he cast a die.

Many dice specimens have been found in the Vesuvian cities and elsewhere, clearly showing how popular gambling was at the time, as widely attested by our sources.

Indeed we find the fritillus as a sign for gambling dens, and there is no shortage of engaging depictions of dice players in taverns, sometimes fighting, as in the small picture painted in caupona VI 14, 36.

Dice were also used for games of skill generally played on a tabula lusoria, a sort of chessboard.

Under these circumstances, it was necessary for the players to reconcile their calculations with the luck factor.

Loaded dice have also been found, weighted with lead on the inside of one face to get a certain number is rolled.