But what player has not retreated before you? What piece is lost when you are its player? Or what piece before capture has not reduced the enemy? In a thousand ways your army fights: one piece, as it retreats, itself captures its pursuer: a reserve piece, standing on the alert, comes from its distant retreat - this one dares to join the fray and cheats the enemy coming for his spoil.

If mayhap you please, when weary with the weight of studies, to be nevertheless not inactive but to play games of skill, then on the open board in more cunning fashion a piece is moved into different positions and the contest is waged to a finish with glass soldiers, so that white checks the black pieces, and black checks white. Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press (1935). Proelia militibus, plena tamen ipse phalangeĮt tibi captiva resonat manus utraque turba. Ut citus ecfracta prorumpat in agmina mandraĬlausaque deiecto populetur moenia vallo. Qui stetit in speculis hic se committere rixaeĪudet et in praedam venientem decipit hostem Īncipites subit ille moras similisque ligato Mille modis acies tua dimicat: ille petentem,ĭum fugit, ipse rapit longo venit ille recessu, Sed tibi quis non terga dedit? quis te duce cessitĬalculus? aut quis non periturus perdidit hostem? Ut niveos nigros, nunc et niger alliget albos. Non languere tamen lususque movere per artem,Ĭalculus et vitreo peraguntur milite bella, Te si forte iuvat studiorum pondere fessum

The anonymous Roman poem Laus Pisonis (Panegyric on Piso) (lines 190-208), written in the 1 st century CE, says the following about Latrunculi: Although, none of the Roman writers provided a detailed account of the rule of the game, there is one account which provides enough detail about the rules and strategy of Latrunculi, for the rules to be reconstructed with some what accuracy. The earliest mention of Latrunculi in the Roman writings was made by Varro (116-27 BCE) in his book De Lingua Latina (On the Latin Language), Book X, 22, with regard to the grid on the board. Corbridge Roman Town and Museum, English Hertitage. Latrunculi found at Housesteads Roman Fort or Roman Corbridge, complete with pottery counters and dice containers. The name of the game, Ludus Latrunculorum, means The Game of Mercenaries.

It is a game of military tactics, a little similar to checkers. Typically, it was played on boards with grids of 7×7, 7×8, 8×8, 8×9, 9×9, or 9×10, all of which have been found archaeologically. Ludus Latrunculorum, or Latrunculi is an ancient Roman game of pure strategy.

Proelia latin translation