XII Scripta

Ludus Duodecim Scriptorum — the Game of Twelve Marks — was one of the most popular games of the Roman Empire, played by emperors, legionaries and innkeepers alike. Boards survive cut into the stone steps of basilicas, into the floors of frontier forts, and into tavern tables from Britain to Syria.

The rulebook did not survive the Empire. What follows is the reconstruction worked out by Roland Austin and H. J. R. Murray in the early twentieth century, from the layout of surviving lettered boards and from tabula, the game's own descendant and backgammon's direct ancestor.

Objective

Be the first to bring all fifteen of your counters onto the board, race them the length of the track, and bear them all off again.

The board

Thirty-six marks in three rows of twelve, split down the middle by a central gap. Counters travel the whole board as one continuous S:

Top row, marks 1–12, left to right.

Middle row, marks 13–24, right to left.

Bottom row, marks 25–36, left to right.

Both players run the track in the same direction and share every mark, so the whole board is contested ground — unlike backgammon, where the two players move towards each other.

Every mark carries its number in the corner, so the path is always readable. The middle row is the one to watch: its numbers count down from left to right, because the path doubles back along it.

Roman boards usually replaced the plain marks with six six-letter words, making a slogan, a menu or a boast. This board carries the one from Trier:

Left six

Right six

Top row

VIRTVS

IMPERI

Middle row

HOSTES

VINCTI

Bottom row

LVDANT

ROMANI

The might of the Empire / the enemy in chains / let Romans play! The last six marks, 31–36, spell ROMANI, and they are the home zone from which counters are borne off.

Players and setup

Two players, fifteen counters each. The board starts completely empty — every counter begins off the board, waiting to enter.

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Albi play the bone-white counters and go first.

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Nigri play the obsidian-black counters.

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The first player alternates between games: Albi open the first game, Nigri the next, and so on.

The tesserae

Three six-sided dice, thrown together at the start of your turn.

The three numbers are spent separately, one move each. A throw of 2-3-5 lets you move one counter 2, another 3 and another 5 — or the same counter three times, 2 then 3 then 5, which carries it ten marks in all. What you may never do is add them together into a single ten-mark jump.

You must spend as many of the three as you legally can. A die with no legal move is forfeited; if none of the three can be played, the whole throw is forfeited and the turn passes.

Entering

A die of value v enters one counter onto mark v, so counters come in across marks 1–6 — the VIRTVS block. A 4 enters a counter onto mark 4. If that mark is blocked (see below), that die cannot be used to enter.

Entering is an alternative to moving, not a stage to be completed first. On any turn you may spend your dice bringing counters on, moving counters already on the track, or a mixture of both. The one exception is a counter that has been sent home, which must come back before you may move anything else — see below.

To bring a counter on, first tap one of your waiting counters in the tray beside the board, then tap the mark it should enter on. Tapping a mark on its own moves a counter already on the track — so tapping the waiting pile first is what tells the game you mean to enter a new counter rather than advance an old one, when a die could do either.

Moving

A die of value v moves one counter v marks further along the track. You may only ever move forward, never back.

Only the landing mark matters. A counter passes freely over every occupied mark on its way, whoever holds them.

Blocking

Two or more of your counters on one mark form a block. Your opponent may neither enter onto it nor land on it — though they may still pass over it.

There is no limit to how many of your own counters may share a mark, and clustering them is the game's central defensive idea: a wall of blocks across marks 1–6 can shut an opponent out of the game entirely, and a wall further along the track can strand the counters caught behind it.

Sending a counter home

A single counter alone on a mark is a blot, and it is vulnerable.

Land on a blot and the enemy counter is sent home: it comes off the board entirely and goes back among its owner's waiting counters, to re-enter across marks 1–6 and run the whole track again.

A counter that has been sent home carries an obligation with it. Until it is back on the track its owner may move nothing else — every die must go towards bringing it in, and if no entry mark is open the throw is forfeited outright. That is what makes a well-timed hit cost far more than the distance lost, and what makes a wall across marks 1–6 so dangerous.

A counter is only ever a blot when it is alone. Move a second counter onto it and the pair is safe.

Bearing off

Once all fifteen of your counters have reached the last six marks, 31–36 — ROMANI — you may begin taking them off the board.

Think of the way off as an imaginary mark 37. A counter needs the exact throw to reach it:

Counter on

Needs

mark 36

mark 35

mark 34

mark 33

mark 32

mark 31

A larger die may be used instead, but only from the mark furthest from the exit — you may not waste a 6 on the counter sitting on mark 36 while another still waits back on 31.

If a counter is sent home after you have begun bearing off, you must bring it in and walk it all the way round again before any further counter may leave.

Winning

The first player to bear off all fifteen counters wins.

Where this ruleset makes a choice

Two points are underdetermined by the surviving evidence, and this implementation resolves them the way the standard reconstruction does.

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Counters enter across marks 1–6, matching the die, rather than all entering on mark 1. This is Austin's and Murray's reading, and it is the one tabula and backgammon both inherit. It also matters mechanically: were entry pinned to mark 1 alone, an opponent who parked two counters there would lock a player out of the game permanently, since a player with counters off the board may not move anything else.

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Bearing off allows an overshoot from the furthest mark, as backgammon does. Without it, an endgame could stall indefinitely waiting on one exact number.