Editing Tabula (game)

{{Short description|Ancient Greco-Roman board game}}
[[Image:Wurfzabel.jpg|thumb|240px|right|Medieval illustration of tabula players from the 13th century ''[[Carmina Burana]]''.]]

'''Tabula''' ([[Byzantine Greek]]: τάβλι), meaning a plank or board,<ref>{{harvnb|Rich|1881|loc=p. 641: "TAB'ULA (πλάξ, σανίς, πίναξ). A ''plank'' or ''board''..."}}</ref> was a Greco-Roman board game for two players that has given its name to the [[tables games|tables family of games]] of which [[backgammon]] is a member.

==History==
[[File:Tabula - boardgame - Zeno game.svg|thumb|300px|A game of τάβλι (tabula) played by [[Byzantine emperor]] [[Zeno (emperor)|Zeno]] in 480 AD and recorded by [[Agathias]] in {{circa|530 AD}} because of a very unlucky dice throw for Zeno (red), as he threw 2, 5 and 6 and was forced to leave eight pieces alone and thus prone to capture. See "Zeno's Game of τάβλι" by Roland G. Austin.<ref name="Austin-Zeno"/>]]
According to the ''[[Etymologiae]]'' by [[Isidore of Seville]], tabula was first invented by a [[Greeks|Greek]] soldier of the [[Trojan War]] named [[Alea (Greek soldier)|Alea]].<ref>{{harvnb|Lapidge|O'Keefe|2005|p=60}}.</ref><ref> {{harvnb|Barney|Lewis|Beach|Berghof|2006|loc=XVIII.lx–lxix.2 (p. 371): "'''lx. The gaming-board (De tabula)''' Dicing (''alea''), that is, the game played at the gaming-board (''tabula''), was invented by the Greeks during lulls of the Trojan War by a certain soldier named Alea, from whom the practice took its name. The board game is played with a dice-tumbler, counters, and dice."}}</ref> The earliest description of "τάβλι" (tavli) is in an epigram of [[Byzantine emperor]] [[Zeno (emperor)|Zeno]] (r. 474–475; 476–491), given by [[Agathias]] of Myrine (6th century AD), who describes a game in which Zeno goes from a strong position to a very weak one after an unfortunate dice roll.<ref name="Austin-Zeno">{{harvnb|Austin|1934|pp=202–205}}.</ref> The rules of Tabula were reconstructed in the 19th century by [[Becq de Fouquières]] based upon this epigram.<ref name="Austin-Zeno"/><ref name="Austin-Roman">{{harvnb|Austin|1935|pp=76–82}}.</ref> The game was played on a board with a similar layout to that of a modern backgammon board: there were 24 [[point (tables)|points]], 12 on each side.<ref name="Austin-Zeno"/> Two players had 15 pieces each, and moved them in the same direction{{px2}}{{mdash}}{{hsp}}anticlockwise{{px2}}{{mdash}}{{hsp}}around the board, according to the roll of three dice.<ref name="Austin-Zeno"/><ref name="Austin-Roman"/> A piece resting alone in a space on the board (a [[singleton (tables)|singleton]]) was vulnerable to being captured.<ref name="Austin-Zeno"/> If a piece was moved to a point occupied by an enemy singleton, the latter was sent off the board and had to be [[re-entering|re-entered]] on the next turn. The known differences compared with modern backgammon were: three dice were used, all pieces started {{em|off}} the board, both players moved in the same direction and there was no doubling die. It is not known whether players had to re-enter 'hit' pieces {{em|before}} playing those on the board, nor whether players had to gather all pieces in the fourth [[quadrant (tables)|quadrant]] before [[bearing off]]. It is also not clear whether there was a "bar".<ref name="Bell"/>

In the epigram, Zeno was white (red in illustration) and had one point with seven pieces on it, three points with two pieces and two singletons (pieces that stand alone on a point and were therefore in danger of being put outside the board by an incoming opposing piece). Zeno threw the three dice with which the game was played and obtained 2, 5, and 6. Zeno could not move to a space occupied by two opposing (black) pieces. The white and black pieces were so distributed on the points that the only way to use all of the three results, as required by the game rules, was to [[break (tables)|break]] the three points with two pieces into singletons, thus exposing them to capture and ruining the game for Zeno.<ref name="Austin-Zeno"/><ref name="Bell">{{harvnb|Bell|2012|pp=33–35}}.</ref>

Tabula was most likely a later refinement of ''[[ludus duodecim scriptorum]]'', with the board's middle row of points removed, and only the two outer rows remaining.<ref name="Austin-Roman"/>

Today, the word [[Tavli]] (τάβλι) is still used to refer to various tables games in [[Greece]],<ref>{{harvnb|Koukoules|1948|pp=200–204}}.</ref> as well as in [[Syria]] and [[Turkey]] (as ''tavla''), [[Bulgaria]] (as ''tabla'') and in [[Romania]] (as ''table'');  in these countries, tables games remain popular in town squares and cafes.

==References==
===Citations===
{{reflist}}

===Sources===
{{refbegin|2}}
*{{cite journal|last=Austin|first=Roland G.|title=Zeno's Game of τάβλι|journal=The Journal of Hellenic Studies|volume=54|issue=2|year=1934|pages=202–205|doi=10.2307/626864|jstor=626864}}
*{{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|jstor=640979}}
*{{cite book|last1=Barney|first1=Stephen A.|last2=Lewis|first2=W.J.|last3=Beach|first3=J. A.|last4=Berghof|first4=Oliver|title=The Etymologies of Isidore of Seville|year=2006|location=Cambridge and New York|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-13-945616-6|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3ep502syZv8C}}
*{{cite book|last=Bell|first=Robert Charles|title=Board and Table Games from Many Civilizations|year=2012|orig-year=1979|location=New York|publisher=Courier Dover Publications|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2vvBAgAAQBAJ|isbn=9780486145570}}
*{{cite book|last=Koukoules|first=Phaidon|title=Vyzantinon Vios kai Politismos|year=1948|volume=1|publisher=Collection de l'institut français d'Athènes}}
*{{cite book|last1=Lapidge|first1=Michael|last2=O'Keefe|first2=Katherine O'Brien|title=Latin Learning and English Lore: Studies in Anglo-Saxon Literature for Michael Lapidge|year=2005|location=Toronto|publisher=Toronto University Press|isbn=978-0-80-208919-9|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XugS_gAACAAJ}}
*{{cite book|last=Rich|first=Anthony|title=A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities|year=1881|location=New York|publisher=D. Appleton & Company|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=E2KgAAAAMAAJ}}
{{refend|2}}

==External links==
*[http://www.bkgm.com/variants/Tabula.html How to Play Tabula]
*[http://ablemedia.com/ctcweb/showcase/boardgames5.html History and Rules of Tabula]

{{tables games}}

[[Category:Culture of the Byzantine Empire]]
[[Category:Historical tables games]]