For ancient Romans, many of the gestures now associated with Valentine’s Day would be unfamiliar, if not completely puzzling. Love and desire were not confined to a single day, nor expressed through standardised tokens of romance. There were no cards written (or forgotten), flowers purchased (at inflated prices) or eateries teaming with lovers. Instead, intimacy was negotiated through daily social encounters, leisure activities and moments of shared experience.
Ancient evidence – texts, art, and material remains – show that games were everywhere in the Roman world. We’ve been studying ancient board games together since 2018 and our work has found that games brought ancient people together in many different situations, including ones that encouraged closeness, flirtatious competition and prolonged interaction. Often these games, played with simple equipment, could be deeply meaningful and memorable for those who played together.
Roman games included games of strategy played without dice, such as ludus latrunculorum (“the game of the little soldiers”). They also played games which mixed skill and chance by using dice (even though playing dice games was often prohibited by law, like ludus duodecim scriptorum (“the game of 12 lines”), an ancestor of modern backgammon.
