archaeological excavations and literary sources we have received countless testimonies of toys and games of the ancient Romans who made it possible to reconstruct the various types of entertainment as practiced by children that the large (with their skill games, gambling and sports).
In ancient Rome, children played in various ways. Already
for babies feeding bottles were shaped like animals with few pebbles inside to keep them entertained with their sound, but there were also some real rattles ( tintinnabula ).
rich kids' toys were commissioned to artisans experts: circles (
orbis ), often adorned with rings and rattles, to run and play with the wand (
clavis ) tops (
turbo ), carts, dolls
(
pupae), balls, etc..
- Villa Romana del Casale in Piazza Armerina. Vestibule Piccolo Circus: running with four chariots pulled by geese, flamingos, pigeons and waders. The boy declared the winner receives the prize, a symbol of victory.
For males the cart was one of the most popular toys, a miniature chariot which could either be very small and then was linked to small animals (most often were the driving mice) or larger so that the child himself could ride it and that was pulled by a sheep, a dog, etc. ..
The girls especially loved the dolls instead of Roman ( pupae) that held up to the age of marriage. In fact, it was customary on the eve of the wedding, the bride would devote to a deity of his childhood toys.
The faces of the dolls were cared for, painted hair, eyes and lips and make-up kits were also rich and expensive clothes. Some dolls even had jointed.
were certainly different toys of the poorest children: in fact they had to make do with sticks or reeds, to be ridden like horses or simple rag dolls.
The nuts, however, were the true stars of many children's games.
The children piled up and used in many different games to be won or lost. For the Romans
fun with the nuts was so common that the phrase "leave the nuts" ( may leave nuces ) had meant to leave the children to enter adult life. Martial wrote, "I was sad because the student had left the nuts." In the work
"Walnuts" refers to Ovid ludus castellarum a game that was to form a triangle with three walnuts and a tight top that it also had to drop.
The game had many variations and was practiced by children of both sexes.
There were other games of the nuts: one was to slide the nut on its own inclined board. Another is played by drawing a triangle on the ground, divided by horizontal lines parallel to the base and the players at a distance, you threw some nuts, trying to get as close as possible to the summit. There was also a game of "dimple" ( tropa ) Games such as the "dimple" is made with walnuts, but you could use or beads that were originally bones but then shaped into bronze, lead, marble and terracotta and even gold, ivory. The children loved them very often at school and were given as prizes to the most scholars.
or beads could be done with several games. One of those who was played by the children's name "The Circle".
In it, the players available to a defendant distance round a circle marked on the floor and each one had to look not only to hit it with your talus but also move and throw out those of its opponents. Always with Astragals or pebbles then we played the game of "five stones", which was especially loved by girls and children. In this game you threw in the air five talus is rapidly turning the hand trying to pick them up. Won all five of those who took them. Well known was the '
ephedrismos greek which was to hit a rock placed on a mound of earth. The player who was trying to hit balls with stones or had to carry on back another player who blindfolds him.
- Over two games: the first with the use of objects like bowling with the second nuts. Mosaic in the cubicle erotic scene Villa Romana del Casale. Pure games "hide and seek," "fly blind" the swing, the kite, the spool, the ball, thanks to the Greeks were already known and widely practiced. 
There was a kind of small, hard ball stuffed with wool or tow call to the Greek harpastum , which was used for a very animated team game of the same name that the Romans, however, preferred to call pulverulentus . Another type of ball was the paganica bigger than the last and filled with feathers, and then light. Finally, there was a ball call follis or folliculus filled with air: a bouncing ball.
- Villa Romana del Casale. Room for Girls in Bikini: particular
Most of the recreational activities of children was also marked by the imitation of large enterprises: small playing soldiers or magistrates and judges or "game of kings" a contest of skill where the bravest declared king gave orders to all and the less good, called scabby, it took the ridicule of all. But playing also to the even and odd ( par impar ), to the heads and tails (Navia et happens ) morra ( digitize micare ) as well as adults, the difference was at stake .
astragals games with dice and gambling were prohibited by law and permitted only during the period of Saturnalia. They were considered gambling even those on board.
was through the Greeks and the Romans knew these games but not playing exclusively at the table as a bit 'everywhere, holes in the various cities of the empire or in the streets, I am some were discovered engraved on the paving slabs and around which he played sitting or lying on the ground. Also we played with a chess board and the thread ludus latrunculorum , a term which is indicated at the time the mercenaries, and became very popular from the end of the republic, the board was like a battlefield with 64 squares and 16 pieces for each player, each of which received eight large and eight small pieces. The game was a cross between checkers and chess.
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