Roman Game Finds from Cremona (Italy)

This study, published in the Board Game Studies Journal, documents Roman gaming artifacts recovered from Cremona in northern Italy and situates them within the broader Roman game culture of the late Republic and early Empire. Its principal finds include thirteen glass counters and two ivory dice from a service room of the "Domus del ninfeo" at Piazza Marconi, a bone "Alexandrian" counter, and a bone tessera lusoria from a construction trench beneath the Cathedral. These materials date from roughly 40 BC to AD 69 and are linked to the destruction of the city by Vespasian's troops during the civil war of that year, giving the assemblage a tightly bounded chronological and historical context.

The analysis centers on the "Alexandrian" counter type, which is dated from the Caesarian period to the end of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, with some continued use into the early second century AD. Such counters are documented widely, from Egypt and the Near East to Italy, France, Spain, Switzerland, and Austria. Although many examples in private collections lack provenance, excavated specimens from Israel, Crete, Crimea, Rome, and several Italian sites help confirm their chronology. The authors argue for a gaming rather than a theatre-ticket function, supported by the complete fifteen-counter sets recovered from infant graves at Kerch and Rugge.

The study also addresses Roman tesserae lusoriae, bone and ivory gaming tokens whose inscriptions combine Latin epithets, verbal phrases, and incised numerals. A recurring pattern pairs low numbers with insulting names and high numbers with benevolent ones. Dated mainly to the second and first centuries BC and the early first century AD, these tokens are concentrated in Italy, with further examples from Spain, southern France, Greece, and Dalmatia. Their precise rules remain uncertain, though most scholars associate them with board games or gambling. The article concludes with a bibliography of roughly one hundred references drawn from across the Mediterranean.