A Guilty Pleasure For Romans

In The Deadliest Lie, Miriam worried that her family was becoming insolvent, perhaps because her father had been gambling. So, she followed him one night to see whether he was frequenting the backrooms of saloons:

I claimed a vantage point behind a garbage heap opposite the light-filled doorway. Only then did I dare raise my head to peer into the belly of the saloon and match the rattles, jingles, and rumble of voices to an image. A dozen ruffians, one more grotesque than the other, sat with Papa around a well-lit table courting their luck with each throw of the dice. One among them sat facing the door, a beefy slab of a man with a club at his side. I named him the Enforcer because when he spoke, even the moths trembled.

Six-sided playing dice— the same kind we use today— have been in use for over 4,000 years. They have been discovered at sites in Egypt, India, and Persia, but it appears that nowhere in the past were they as prevalent as in ancient Rome. Dice made of wood or bone have been unearthed at Roman sites across the former Empire. Like today, gambling in the empire occupied a curious place in society. It was both disapproved of and enthusiastically embraced.

But why the asymmetry of the dice? Surely the Romans had the technology to create a true cube. Rather, the asymmetry left room for the gods to interfere. Gambling was therefore seen as a way for Romans not just to try their luck but to engage with the gods as well. Ordering a Miriam bat Isaac mystery, however, is not gambling. You are guaranteed to escape the present and immerse yourself in another world. Just click here.