PR-2237IRE Ancient Rome

Roman Life – Entertainment
Children’s Games
We know about the games Roman children played from
murals, relief sculptures and Roman writings. Children
flew kites, bowled hoops, whipped tops, walked on stilts and
played ball games. Handball against a wall was very popular
with adults and children. Boys played war games and fought
with wooden swords while girls played with dolls made of
rags, clay or wax. Some dolls even had jointed legs and arms.
All children played a game similar to marbles where the
marbles were made of glass or pottery. Walnuts or pebbles
were also used. Knucklebones was popular and played with
pieces of pottery or small bones from goats and sheep. Poor
children worked long hours but still found time to play games
for most could not read or write. The children of wealthy
citizens had slaves working for them so they had plenty of
time to play or invent games.
4. Par Impar (‘odd or even’)
1. Capita and Navia (Heads and tails)
This was played at Saturnalia, a festival around Christmas. Two
coins are tossed and the player guesses ‘two heads’, ‘two tails’ or
‘head and tails’. During the Imperial years a coin had the
emperor’s head on one side and often a ship on the reverse side.
2. Roll the Dice
Two dice are rolled and the player with the higher number has a
win.
3. Micatio
One child holds stones, coins or walnuts in a closed hand. The
other player has to guess whether the number of objects is odd
or even.
One partner puts both hands behind his back. On a signal from
his opponent he brings out both hands with one, two, three,
four or five fingers extended on each hand. As one player shows
his hands the other player shouts out a number from 2 to 10.
The player who correctly guesses the total number of extended
fingers has a win.
Viewing Sample
5. Tossing game
Throwing nuts into a narrow-necked jar from a set distance.
Activity Box
Set up the 5 games listed above. Nominate each child as a red, white, blue or green member of a team
like the chariot racing teams. They then pair off and play a different partner in each game. To win a
match a player must be the first to reach 10 winning guesses/plays or the player leading after a set
time. Record the wins for each colour on a class graph to find the winning team.
Prim-Ed Publishing www.prim-ed.com Ancient Rome – 53 –