The ancient Roman baths were social places, undoubtedly buildings where the Romans could spend hours intent on various activities. And among the curious details and insights into daily life that we can find, for example, inside the monumental Baths of Caracalla of Rome we also find this tabula lusoria, an extraordinary example of how the Romans loved to have fun and play, even in public places. a very evocative term: otium.

Just as in ancient Greece, also for the ancient Romans the game also had a social function: knowing how to play meant knowing how to use one's moral and mental qualities, and this was a great quality for a leader. Demonstrating sagacity and wit, forcing opponents to lose, was considered an intrinsic quality in all those who wanted to aspire to any type of leadership (a similar consideration can also be made for hunting, another very popular practice. in ancient Rome, as you can read here). Just think, still talking about games, for example, that Augustus himself seems to have been a renowned player or, again, think of the fact that gladiator shows were included among the ludi, events of various kinds hosted, for example, in buildings such as the Colosseum. But how did the ancient Romans play?

We have an example here at the Baths of  Caracalla. There were, for example, different types of tabulae, and even today something is not entirely clear to us! The holes you see here in the photo, visible in the archaeological area of the Baths of Caracalla, were made to house bones, small dice or anything that could be thrown. The game consisted in declaring, before the throw, where the die would stop, in which hole. It was therefore necessary to try to predict the movement of the element used for the game, which obviously would have been much easier after hours and hours of exercises or, as evidenced by some ancient sources, through fraud for example. But exactly as it can happen today in the recreational field, it is certain that a great round of betting animated everything! For this reason, some laws prohibited minors from participating in certain games, a bit like poker. Then the public baths, those large buildings whose vestiges we still admire today, were very suitable places to play in this way. The baths were not only used for personal hygiene but, on the contrary, they had more of a social function, in which men and women also met to converse, do business, talk about this and that, find some intimate occasions. So, as in this case, imagine you are soaking in a swimming pool, leaning on the edge and chatting with your friends. With the warm water that caresses your skin, between a joke and the other and various business, you could even decide to have a nice... little game!