Tabula

In Roman antiquity this game was known as Alea, meaning 'gambling', but came to be called Tabula, 'board' or 'table', since it was played on a board. Tabula was an ancestor to Backgammon, and has a similar board and style of play to Backgammon. Tabula was a gambling game of which the Roman Emperor Claudius was most fond. Around the year 50, Claudius wrote a history of the game of Tabula which, unfortunately, has not survived. His imperial carriage was equipped with an alveus, a Tabula playing board, so that he could play while traveling. Tabula was also the game which was primarily responsible for the gambling mania which swept Rome prior to its being declared illegal under the Republic. The fine for gambling at any other time except the Saturnalia was four times the stakes, although this law was only weakly and sporadically enforced. The equipment for Tabula is the same as in Backgammon except that each player has three dice instead of two. All of the pieces start off the board in Tabula. Both players enter their fifteen pieces into the same starting table and move them around the board in the same direction. The object of the game is to move all of your pieces to the finishing table and then bear them off. The first player to bear off all his pieces wins the game.