Tabula | Ancient Roman board game | Rules | History | Strategy

Description provided by The Gaming Bench on YouTube:

Tabula is an ancient Roman 2-player strategy game, widely considered to be an ancestor of the modern game of backgammon. In this video, I cover the rules, history, and strategy of tabula, and explain why Emperor Zeno had a very bad, no good, horrible move. Tabula build: https://youtu.be/Y6v6tM_6-z8 Duodecim Scriptorum: https://youtu.be/rL2hyPtI08g Want to support the channel? Drop me a couple bucks at https://buymeacoffee.com/thegamingbench. Thanks! PHOTO CREDITS Some images and video used for fair use commentary, criticism, and educational purposes. Claudius CC BY 2.5 Marie-Lan Nguyen https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Jastrow Solidus of Roman Emperor Zeno CC BY-SA 4.0 Apaleutos25 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Apaleutos25 Mesopotamia male worshiper 2750-2600 BC CC SA-BY 2.0 Rosemaniakos https://www.flickr.com/photos/rosemania/ Complaint tablet to Ea-Nasir 2023 CC BY-SA 4.0 Geni https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Geni Reconstruction of Roman Carriage Römisch-Germanisches Museum CC SA-BY 3.0 Marcus Cyron https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Marcus_Cyron Roman Game of 12 Lines Board - Aphrodisias CC BY 2.0 Wneuheisel https://www.flickr.com/photos/wneuheisel/7471668214/ Artifact presentation, Gloucester tabula set, June 2019 CC BY-SA 3.0 Celuici Persian Backgammon board made in Khatam technique CC BY-SA 3.0 Niko Kitsakis https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Nubero REFERENCES Publications * Atkins, Robert Wayne. Ancient Board Games and Solitaire Games from Around the World, Grandpappy Inc, 2018 * Bell, R.C. Board and Table Games from Many Civilizations, Dover Publications, 1979 * Bell, R.C. Discovering Old Board Games, Shire Publications Ltd., 1973 * Bell, R.C. The Boardgame Book, The Knapp Press, 1979 * Donovan, Tristan. It’s All a Game, Atlantic Books, 2017 * Knight, Hugh T. Jr. Pastimes with Good Company: European Games from Antiquity to the Renaissance, Lulu.com, 2022 * Livingstone, Ian; Wallis, James. Board Games in 100 Moves, DK, 2019 * Murray, H.J.R. A History of Board-Games Other Than Chess, Oxford at the Clarendon Press, 1952 * Parlett, David. Parlett’s History of Board Games. Echo Point Books & Media, 2018 * Schädler, Ulrich. “XII Scripta, Alea, Tabula - New Evidence for the Roman History of ‘Backgammon.’” New Approaches to Board Games Research, edited by Alexander J. de Voogt, Leiden, 1995, 73-98 * Smith, Patrick J. The Complete Anachronist #71: Period Pastimes. The Society for Creative Anachronism, 1994 * Wilkins, Sally. Sports and Games of Medieval Cultures, Greenwood Press, 2002 Websites https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tabula_(game) https://www.mastersofgames.com/rules/tabula-rules.htm?srsltid=AfmBOor--VDSOikb4QEvM_rAGEAtV4ueVo6RxVGSs3r5SsWR1dtRbcA0 https://historicalgames.neocities.org/GreekRome/tabula https://foundinantiquity.com/2019/12/04/tabula-a-strategic-2-player-roman-board-game/ https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/686583/tabula-backgammon-but-you-both-go-the-same-way https://grokipedia.com/page/Tabula_(game) Videos https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KA3mM9ApfdA&t=58s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEpR0VDS7ug Timecodes 00:00 - Intro 00:37 - Board & pieces 00:57 - Rules 04:25 - History 09:34 - Zeno's infamous game 11:16 - Deciphering the rules 14:02 - Strategy 15:16 - Wrap-up #boardgames #ancientgames, #roman, #romanhistory, #tabula STANDARD DISCLAIMER: I am well aware that my pronunciation of foreign words, names, and places (and let's be honest, sometimes words in my native language) is terrible. I do look up pronunciations, and I try to get my American mouth to make the right noises. But at the end of the day, I’m just a small-town guy who’s doing his best. Also, I am not a professional game scholar, just an enthusiastic amateur. This means my work may be incomplete, biased and, (I hope only rarely) outright wrong. I work hard to use reliable sources, double-check for accuracy, and draw reasonable conclusions. However, the scholarship surrounding ancient games is constantly growing and evolving; as a part-time game researcher and YouTube content creator, I am not always up to date on the most recent findings. If I present anything that is demonstrably incorrect, please call me out so I may increase my personal knowledge and understanding of this fascinating subject. Reach me at heygamingbench@gmail.com.