A forum area where people have asked various questions about ancient Roman games and entertainment. Someone asked about underwear too π
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Dear reader – you’ve sent me a blog message but didn’t include your email so I can only respond via the blog. Your question was: “what is a roman turricula?”
Answer: a turricula is a dimunutive form of the word for “tower” ie a turret. In the gaming environment it would have been a cylindrical dice box/cup.
Someone wrote in saying “i need help”. I would love to, but if you don’t tell me what you’re looking for or how to get in touch with you there’s no way I can help other than writing into my own roman entertainment forum in the hope you will read this.
Alternatively you could try writing me an email so that I can respond to you personally. If it’s useful material I will in any case end up posting both question and response so that others may get benefit out of it too.
U could’ve used a bit more info soz xx
Ans: If you tell me what you would like more information about I can help better. Thanks for the comment in any case
Can anybody help? I’ve read that “alea iacta est” was said during
public games in the Circus, but this seems odd to me. Those games were tests
of speed, skill, cunning and strength, and surely the only element of
chance was whether the thumb went up or down? TIA Archie
Answer: You’re close but ended up quite off track:
“alea iacta est” or ” iacta alea est” means “the die is cast” and hence a clear reference to gambling. According to the writer and Roman historian Suetonius, who wrote a book on the life of Caesar “Divus Julius” the phrase was pronounced by Julius Caesar when he decided to cross, with his army, the small Rubicon river which marked the border between Gaul and Italy.
The “die was cast” because Julius Caesar was in a struggle for political power and the Senate, swayed by his opposition, had invited him to return to Rome from Gaul; leaving his men behind of course. To cross the border with the troops was an obvious threat which would lead to civil war.
Pompey the Great, (military) leader of the opposition, retreated from Rome to the port of Brindisi (see picture left) and a chase ensued which finally lead to Pompey’s death by the hands of Cleopatra’s father in Egypt. A civil war followed which left Caesar with absolute power over the Roman dominions and marked the beginning of the end for the Republic. Caesar left his inheritance to his nephew Augustus who eliminated Mark Anthony and Cleopatra and made himself first Emperor. Better than a soap opera huh?
The phrase is now commonly used to mean a final decision taken to finally resolve a serious situation.
Regarding the games: I think you are referring to the gladiatorial games right? I say that because of your reference to “thumbs up or down”. The Gladiatorial games were held in the amphitheatres, such as the Colosseum (sometimes spelt in the US as “Coliseum”).
The circus was used for things like chariot races. Admittedly the circus predated the amphitheatre and hence early gladiatorial shows may well have been held in the Circus or Forum .
did they wear undies…. i hope they did…. lol >;)
Answer: Rather like asking the same thing about Scotsmen π The answer is yes. It is interesting to note that one of the Vindolanda tablets – ie an ancient Roman letter found at a fort near Hadrian’s wall in England – has one person asking the other whether he received the clothing including undergarments. In a similar fashion there are also mosaics in sicily showing women wearing bikinis whilst playing ball outside. You may want want to read our Roman Clothing pages.
very nice site a lot of facts on Roman entertainment that I didn’t
know.
i love you guys.i needed to complete a project and this site really
helped. I’m telling all of my friends about this site.
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And: thanks for the feedback π By the way checking out some of the purchase counseling on the way to Rome might make our sponsors happy too.
YO
very nice site a lot of facts on Roman entertainment that I didn’t know.
Answer to your comment: thanks.
This area is an open Forum in which to raise ideas, questions and opinions regarding ancient Roman entertainment and games. It also drives further work and research on our behalf to make the information provided as complete as possible. “Negative” comments are often the most helpful – but only if they actually contain some information about what you think is wrong or missing in the context of “entertainment in ancient Rome” and what to do about it. No bad language please.