were mostly used as dice. The word “astragalus” also referred to tetrahedral bricks with indentations, which more resembled modern dice – hexahedral bricks with somewhat rounded corners, in which the opposite facets, when added up, always amount to seven.
In the old days the people played odd and even, cast dice in the circle or threw them, trying to hit certain openings. Dice were also widely used for fortune-telling. It is also interesting that the players treated dice with nearly reverent trepidation, as if the dice were alive: the players talked to them, whispered charms and tried to persuade them to bring victory.
Since their emergence dice almost at once became one of the most venturesome gambling games. The players placed everything in their bet: money, things, dwelling and even freedom (ancient Germans who lost in dice humbly became slaves). At the same time there appeared various lawful bans on this seemingly harmless game. For instance, in the 3rd century B.C. the first known in history law against gambling games was adopted. It was called Lex aleatoria (alea means a die).
In Ancient Greece there was a legend that the Olympic gods divided the “spheres of influence” by casting lots (Zeus got the Olympus, Poseidon received the ocean, and Hades came to rule the underworld). The laws of Ancient Rome formally forbade gambling games, but there was no specific punishment for violation of the ban. The only “penalty” for the players was the right of the defeated player to reclaim everything he lost, if he though that he was wrongly or unfairly defeated. Officially the games were allowed only once a year, during the Saturnalia (annual festivities in honour of the god Saturn).