Ludus Latrunculorum

By HL Clef of Cividale

Overview

In this project I have created a game board and counters for playing the war game of Ludus Latrunculorum. This was one of many games that were played in and around the Roman Empire.

The Game

The game that I have studied and recreated is Ludus Latrunculorum “The game of soldiers,” also known as Latrunculi. It is believed to be the Roman equivalent to the Greek game of Petteia, with an added piece called a Dux that is reminiscent of a King. The earliest reference to this game was in the 1^st century BC by Varro, with the last reference to the game being played within the Roman Empire was around 400AD by Macrobius. Other period sources for information are Vopiscus, Ovid, and Saleius Bassus.

Boards of a variety of dimensions (7x8, 8x8, 9x10, & 8x12) have been found, with the most common dimension being 8x8. I have chosen to make an 8x12 board based on the dimensions of a board found in 1996 in the grave, dated to around 50AD, of a doctor at Stanway near Colchester in Great Britain. This board appeared to have the counters already laid out in such a fashion that a game had just begun. This game board was made of wood with metal corner pieces and hinges. The counters were made of white and blue glass. Finds of complete games sets are rare. From the earliest times people were marking out game boards on the ground and using readily available items as game pieces. This would account for the scarcity of finds.

My Project

I made the game board by cutting a piece of wood to size and using the saw to mark the lines onto the board. I then took some hand carving tools to carve out the lines on the board. Then I sanded all of the surfaces of the board. Then I coated the board with boiled linseed oil to seal it. I made the counters from antler. The antler was cut into discs, the burs were removed with a knife, and they were smoothed with a file. With a knife, I carved indentations into the lighter colored pieces to give further distinction between counters. I carved the Dux counter from a piece of soapstone. I also made the pouch that is used to hold the counters.

The Rules

The rules for this game are not known exactly, but literary sources, artwork, and archeological finds can be used as guides to rebuild the game. The rules that I have suggested are a combination of rules from Parlett & Bell that seem to work well.

Suggested Rules

1) Each player has 12 counters and a Dux counter. The 12 regular counters are placed to fill the back row of the board. The Dux counter is placed in the next row up and in the space just right of the center line.

Proposed starting positions for Latrunculi, based on the find at Stanway.

2) Any counter may move any number of spaces orthogonally (as the rook piece in chess moves) not diagonally. A capture is made by custodial capture; by trapping an enemy counter between 2 of your counters orthogonally. The Dux counter can be used to capture but cannot be captured. It can, however, be made immobile.

3) A piece may move between 2 enemy counters without being captured. The sides of the board cannot be used to make a capture.

4) The game ends when all of the regular counters are captured. In the case of a stalemate, the player with the most pieces on the board wins.

Conclusion

I’ve been interested in war games for a long time and have studied about a few of them. I became interested in this game when I was first studying about Hnefatafl⁽¹⁾. I’ve made a few game boards before following a similar procedure as I did here. If I had the skill necessary to work with metal and glass, I would make the metal fittings and the glass counters to recreate the Latrunculi board that was found. But I am satisfied with what I’ve made because I believe that the most popular items that would have been used would have been the easiest for the people to produce. I am studying other war games such as Seega and Hnefatafl, and I intend to put together game sets for each.

Bibliography

The Oxford History of Board Games – David Parlett

Oxford University Press 1999

ISBN: 0192129988

A History of Board-Games other than Chess – H.J.R. Murray

Hacker Art Books, Inc., New York 1978

ISBN: 0878172114

Board and Table Games from Many Civilizations (Revised Edition) – R.C. Bell

Dover Publications, Inc., New York 1980

ISBN: 0486238555

Greek Board Games, Antiquity – R.G. Austin

University of Liverpool, England 1940

Footnotes

(1) - A Viking or Norse game that uses the same method of movement and capture.