Editing Saturnalia (section)

===Gambling===
[[File:Pompeii - Osteria della Via di Mercurio - Dice Players.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|Dice players in a wall painting from [[Pompeii]]]]
Gambling and dice-playing, normally prohibited or at least frowned upon, were permitted for all, even slaves. Coins and nuts were the [[gambling|stakes]]. On the [[Calendar of Philocalus]], the Saturnalia is represented by a man wearing a fur-trimmed coat next to a table with dice, and a caption reading: "Now you have license, slave, to game with your master."<ref>{{harvnb|Versnel|1992|page=148}} citing [[Suetonius]], ''Life of Augustus'' 71; Martial 1.14.7, 5.84, 7.91.2, 11.6, 13.1.7; 14.1; Lucian, [http://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/luc/wl4/wl422.htm ''Saturnalia'' 1.]</ref><ref>See [http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/chronography_of_354_06_calendar.htm a copy of the actual calendar]</ref> Rampant overeating and drunkenness became the rule, and a sober person the exception.<ref>{{harvnb|Versnel|1992|page=147}}, citing [[Cato the Elder]], ''De agricultura'' 57; [[Aulus Gellius]] 2.24.3; Martial 14.70.1 and 14.1.9; [[Horace]], ''Satire'' 2.3.5; [[Lucian]], ''Saturnalia'' 13; ''Scriptores Historiae Augustae'', Alexander Severus 37.6.</ref>

[[Seneca the Younger|Seneca]] looked forward to the holiday, if somewhat tentatively, in a letter to a friend:

<blockquote>"It is now the month of December, when the greatest part of the city is in a bustle. Loose reins are given to public dissipation; everywhere you may hear the sound of great preparations, as if there were some real difference between the days devoted to Saturn and those for transacting business.&nbsp;... Were you here, I would willingly confer with you as to the plan of our conduct; whether we should eve in our usual way, or, to avoid singularity, both take a better supper and throw off the toga."<ref>[[Seneca the Younger]], ''Epistulae'' 18.1–2.</ref></blockquote>

Some Romans found it all a bit much. [[Pliny the Younger|Pliny]] describes a secluded suite of rooms in his [[Laurentum|Laurentine]] [[Roman villa|villa]], which he used as a retreat: "... especially during the Saturnalia when the rest of the house is noisy with the licence of the holiday and festive cries. This way I don't hamper the games of my people and they don't hinder my work or studies."<ref>[[Pliny the Younger]], ''Letters'' 2.17.24. [[Horace]] similarly sets ''Satire'' 2.3 during the Saturnalia but in the countryside, where he has fled the frenzied pace.</ref>