Ludus Latrunculorum

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Ludus Latrunculorum

Postby Marcus Tullius Ioannes on Sun Apr 27, 2008 3:12 pm

Salve:

I am a chess aficianado (what would be the appropriate latin term?), a club player of no great skill, but I love the game and am interested in its history.

Latrunculi seems to be the closest equivalent in ancient Rome. The object was apparently to immobilize your opponent's king by surrounding it with other pieces. It sounds fascinating.

Does anyone know whether latrunculi boards and pieces are available for purchase anywhere, or know of any other variant of "chess" played in ancient Rome.

My thanks in advance for any replies.
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Postby Quintus Servilius Priscus on Sun Apr 27, 2008 7:12 pm

Salve,

I did a Google search for the game. I found a Wooden version of the board game here:

http://www.bethanddon.com/product/770292992.html

And if you have a Mac(OSX) there is a Mac verison here:

http://mactrunculi.sourceforge.net/Coco ... S%20X.html

Google Search:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=La ... gle+Search

I'm going to download the Mac version later.
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Postby Cleopatra Aelia on Tue Apr 29, 2008 8:51 pm

There used to be a very good website about Roman Board Games but it seems to be offline :cry:

But because Roman Board Games are my thing besides fighting as a gladiatrix (gladiators need something to do when not training or fighting 8) ) I delved into the matter of board games. I have copied the rules for latrunculi from that Roman Board Game site, so if interested I will send them by PM or even better by E-Mail as a Word document attached.
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Roman Checkers (now and then)

Postby Aldus Marius on Wed Apr 30, 2008 6:18 am

Salvete, Romani conlusores!

A short scuba session in my game closet has produced Cohorts: The Game of Roman Checkers, published by TSR (same company as original Dungeons & Dragons) in 1977. It is based on ludus latrunculorum, as reconstructed by England's Edward Falkener in the 1890s. I found mine in a wargames shop; but I've seen variants in historical catalogues (like Past Times), museum shops, and even at textbook fairs (where they are billed as classroom activities or educational materials). Some RenFaire merchants sell historical games, often on a cloth board that doubles as a carrying-pouch for the pieces. Too, a number of Roman books and "activity kits" for children will have at least a description of the game, and often a board or diagram and pieces. IOW, not hard to come by; but you have to look in some unusual places.

The PSU site about Roman ball and board games hasn't gone away, exactly; it's just not on PSU's servers anymore. (Hei, everybody's got to graduate sometime.) I have its new addy (I think it's the same author):
http://ablemedia.com/ctcweb/showcase/boardgames.html

And, way 'long time ago before I was an SVR bigwig, I posted a game of my own creation (still under development), not based on anything historical, but that just has that 'feel' to it:
http://www.societasviaromana.net/phpBB2 ... php?t=1137

But as for the question...


> I am a chess aficionado (what would be the appropriate latin term?


...I asked somebody, some time ago, what the good word for Übergeek might be (we have a thread for that, too; there's even a link to a quiz you can take!); something tells me that, when we find it, aficionado's translation won't be far behind. >({|;-)

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Postby Marcus Tullius Ioannes on Thu May 01, 2008 4:02 pm

Many thanks for all of the replies. I have a lot of reading to do.
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