Editing Tables game (section)

=== Classical period ===
[[File:Tabula - boardgame - Zeno game.svg|thumb|upright=1.10|right|The situation in Zeno's game of tabula when he had an unlucky dice throw]]

==== Byzantine Empire ====
[[Tabula (game)|Tabula]] (also called [[Alea (game)|Alea]], ''Tablē'' or ''Tάβλι''{{efn|Meaning 'table' or 'board' in [[Byzantine Greek]]}}), is the oldest identifiable tables game. It is described in an [[epigram]] of [[Byzantine Empire|Byzantine]] [[Zeno (emperor)|Emperor Zeno]] (AD 476–491).<ref name="austin-zeno">{{cite journal |last=Austin |first=Roland G |title=Zeno's Game of τάβλη |journal=The Journal of Hellenic Studies |volume=54 |issue=2 |year=1934 |pages=202–205 |doi=10.2307/626864 |jstor=626864|s2cid=163212104 }}</ref> It had the typical tables board layout with 24 rectangular [[point (tables game)|points]], 12 on each side. Each player had 15 [[men (tables game)|men]] and used cubical [[dice]] with sides numbered one to six.<ref name="austin-zeno" /> The object of the game was to be the first to [[bear off]] all of one's men.<ref name="austin-zeno" /><ref name="austin-roman2">{{cite journal|last=Austin|first=Roland G.|title=Roman Board Games. II|journal=Greece & Rome|volume=4|issue=11|date=February 1935|pages=76–82|doi=10.1017/s0017383500003119|s2cid=248520932 }}</ref> Modern backgammon follows similar rules to those of tabula, the key differences being that tabula uses an extra die (three rather than two), there is no [[doubling die]] or bar, and all the [[tablemen]] start off the board. Interestingly, the rules in backgammon for re-entering pieces from the [[bar (tables games)|bar]] are the same as those in tabula for entering [[piece (tables game)|pieces]] from off the board, along with those for hitting a blot, and bearing off.<ref name="bell">Robert Charles Bell, ''Board and table games from many civilizations'', Courier Dover Publications, 1979, {{ISBN|0-486-23855-5}}, pp. 33–35.</ref> The name {{lang|el|τάβλη}} is still used for tables games in Greece, where they are frequently played in town [[plateia]]s and cafes.<ref name="koukoules">{{cite book|last=Koukoules|first=Phaidon|author-link=|title=Vyzantinon Vios kai Politismos|year=1948|volume=1|pages=200–204|publisher=Collection de l'institut français d'Athènes}}</ref> The epigram of Zeno describes a particularly bad dice roll the emperor had for his given position. Zeno, who was white, had a [[stack (tables game)|stack]] of seven men, three stacks of two men and two [[blot (tables game)|blots]], men that stood alone on a point and were therefore in danger of being put outside the board by an incoming opposing man. Zeno threw the three dice with which the game was played and obtained 2, 5 and 6. The rules meant that Zeno could not move to a [[space (tables game)|space]] occupied by two opposing (black) men. The black and white tablemen were so distributed on the points that the only way to use all three results, as required by the game rules, was to break the three stacks of two men into blots, exposing them and ruining the game for Zeno.<ref name="austin-zeno" /><ref name="bell" />

==== Roman Empire ====
[[File:Roman Game of 12 Lines Board - Aphrodisias.jpg|thumb|upright=1.10|right|Roman ''[[Ludus duodecim scriptorum]]'' board from the 2nd century, Aphrodisias]]
The {{lang|grc-x-medieval|τάβλι}} of Zeno's time is believed to be a direct descendant of the earlier Roman ''[[Ludus duodecim scriptorum]]'' ("Game of Twelve Lines") with the board's middle row of points removed, and only the two outer rows remaining.<ref name="austin-roman2" /> {{Lang|la|Duodecim scriptorum}} used a board with three rows of 12 points each, with the 15 men being moved in opposing directions by the two players across three rows according to the roll of the three cubical dice.<ref name="austin-zeno" /><ref name="austin-roman2" /> Little specific text about the play of {{lang|la|Duodecim scriptorum}} has survived;<ref name="austin-roman1">{{cite journal|last=Austin|first=Roland G.|title=Roman Board Games. I|journal=Greece & Rome|volume=4|issue=10|date=October 1934|pages=24–34|doi=10.1017/s0017383500002941|s2cid=162861940 }}</ref> it may have been related to the older [[Ancient Greek]] dice game ''Kubeia''. The earliest known mention of the game is in [[Ovid]]'s {{Lang|la|[[Ars Amatoria]]}} ("The Art of Love"), written between 1 BC and 8 AD. In Roman times, this game was also known as ''Alea'', and a likely apocryphal Latin story linked this name, and the game, to a [[Troy|Trojan]] soldier named [[Alea (Greek soldier)|Alea]].<ref>Finkel, Irving L. "Ancient board games in perspective." British Museum Colloquium. 2007. p. 224</ref><ref>Jacoby, Oswald, and John R. Crawford. ''The backgammon book''. Viking Pr, 1976.</ref>
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