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History of Dice: All's Square in Games and Wars
If all's fair in love and war, everything's square in games and wars when it comes to dice. Do you wish to know what's behind the closed doors of the history of dice? If so, you've definitely come to the right place.
The use of dice, believe it or not, has figured prominently in many a history of scores of nations and kingdoms in the old days. The game of dice has been used to settle affairs of the state and of course, the heart. The dice itself has also been considered once as a magical object since it was frequently used by witch doctors in any of their rituals.
The Inventor of Dice As far as one could be sure, it was none other than the Egyptian civilization who could be solely credited with the amazing invention of the dice. Although even Sophocles himself wished to credit the invention to the Greeks (his race), the earliest records that showed the use of dice have been seen in ancient Egyptian religious writings.
The Dice Look The dice we use today, you'd be surprised to know, does not resemble the dice used by people in the old days. Then, almost anything could pass off as dice. Most dice in ancient times were made of bones. Some, however, were made of semi-precious gems or minerals such as marble, rock crystal, onyx, jet, amber, agate and porcelain. On the other hand, the dice used by the Etruscans were similar to what we use today. The sides of the Etruscan dice always added up to 7: one and six, two and five and lastly, three and four.
Similar looking dice have also been found in historical findings at Maiden Castle in Great Britain.
The Famous Cheaters Throughout history, there have been several famous figures who have gained popularity - or rather, notoriety - simply because they were very good cheaters in dice games. Roman politicians and conquerors such as Nero, Caligula and Augustus are just a few who make up this rather wicked list.
At the Roll of the Die As mentioned, the dice game was sometimes used to decide the outcome of any particular issue. An example of this would be the disagreement between the two King Olafs - one from Sweden and the other from Norway - over the ownership of a particular territory.
To resolve the conflict peacefully, the decided to roll two dice. The first roll for both kings had the same result: double sixes.
The second roll however had the Norweigan king roll out the same while the Swedish monarch got a 6 in one die and cracked the other die.
