2000 Year Old Roman d20 Up For Auction

dolo666 writes "There is a d20 for sale at Christie's. Titled; "A ROMAN GLASS GAMING DIE", this item dates to circa 2nd Century A.D., and it's likely to go for a mere $6k USD! Just think of the die-hard dice gamer on your list, this festive season! That would make all those late night Cthulhu missions with Lord Nekrull, my 16th level Assassin demi-god, a smashing good time!"

Comments

Actual use

[grub]

Modern scholarship has not yet established the game for which these dice were used.

Actually these are called Slave Dies and were popularised by the Roman Emperor Publius Helvius Pertinax in the mid 2nd century AD. During periods when professional gladiatorial combat was lacking, 400 slaves would be seperated into 20 groups of 20 each. The diplomat (or the Emporer himself) running the game would roll a Slave Die 4 times. The first time selected a group, the second a slave within the group. The 3rd and 4th rolls repeated this selection.

The two slaves would then be outfitted with crude weapons and ordered to fight to the death. Because slaves had horrific medical care the survivor of the battles usually died from infection later on.

If, in the odd event, the die rolls selected the same person twice then that slave would immediately be freed and given a not insubstantial amount of gold as it was deemed that the gods had smiled on this person.

It was a horribly stressful thing; you wouldn't want to be rolled once, but if that were the case you'd be praying for a second roll to select you.


actually.. I made that all up, sure sounds good though, eh? PS: f1st pr0st

Re:Actual use

[davezirk]

$100 says they were used for gambling.

You...

[MoronGames]

"That would make all those late night Cthulhu missions with Lord Nekrull, my 16th level Assassin demi-god, a smashing good time!"

You, sir, are a nerd!
Care to play some time?

PVP said it best...

[ajiva]

I think PvP says it best:

http://pvponline.com/index.php3

CRAPICUS!

As discussed in Monday's PVPonline

[twoshortplanks]

Scott Kurtz did a little scetch on this in his latest comic

DND is THAT old?

[techno-vampire]

I had no idea DND went back that far. It makes me wonder where Gygax got his claims to have invented it.

Re:DND is THAT old?

[isomeme]

Yes, but in the Roman era D&D, which is set in a mythic version of the medieval period, was considered a cutting-edge hyperfuturistic sci-fi game.

Re:DND is THAT old?

[Mathness]

It is a little know fact, but live rolepalying was huge in ancient times. A, now famous, religous figur, failed his saving throw at a critical point and ended up on a cross. Some days later the GM allowed a resurrection to occur, mainly for plot reasons.

Re:DND is THAT old?

[bsartist]

Not quite right. Jesus actually *made* his saving throw - that's why he was allowed to come back at all. Incidentally, that's also where the modern phrase "Jesus saves" came from.

Only these word come to mind:

[jawtheshark]

Alea iacta est!

Et Tu Brutas

[Anonymous Coward]

And now we finally know why it took over 20 stabs to fell Ceaser; Brutus, like many frustrated gamers, suffered from the profound disability of often rolling low on his hit die...

What am I bid for a Christie's http server

[ThePatrioticFuck]

Going... going... gone!

Roman D&D

[psi_diddy]

I'm so sorry Publius, but you only rolled a XVI and you needed XVII to hit an Orc with Armor Class IX with your +I short short sword.

Re:Roman D&D

[fishbonez]

"Jesus saves, but everyone else in a 10 foot radius takes full damage from the fireball." --from some sig, can't remember who's

A demi-god? Only 16th level?

[Denyer]

I bet the Romans played by the old rules! And they remembered what the letters TSR stood for!

Well, gee, thanks for driving up the price...

[jtnishi]

Yeah, well, now that slashdot readers know about it, there's no way anyone's going to be able to get a bargain on that die too...

Rats, and I was really hoping to surprise a friend with that too. Nothing says "I'm a geek" more than a nearly two-millenia old d20.

Sounds like a major assumption to me

[Angst Badger]

So what makes them think this was for gaming? Given the religious significance of regular polyhedra in the classical era -- including but not limited to the Pythagoreans -- it's much more likely that this was either a divination tool or a model representing someone's cosmological theory.

Re:The question is...

[Grr]

Well since it's covered in strange symbols it would only require mild persuasion to convince the dungeon master, that today the round thingy with the squigly bit means you scored a critical hit.

Re:D&D parody

[the melon]

Its called summoner geeks

http://www.ifilm.com/filmdetail?ifilmid=220487

and it's likely a fake

[Anonymous Coward]

note that the pedigree of this item is a single
statement that the thing was bought by the sellers
father in Egypt in the 1920's.

That is the kind of pedigree that would bid this
item up to about $20 as a curio.

The seller is smoking crack, as is anyone who bids
more than a few bucks on that thing.

Re:D&D dice

[Fancia]

Multi-sided dice a modern invention? Please show me this single-sided die you allude to; it intrigues me.

After careful examination..

[D-Cypell]

...Historians were amazed to see the words 'patent pending 44BC' in small print on the die.

Re:After careful examination..

[bar-agent]

How would they know that Christ was going to be born in ~44 years? Hmmm?