Fun discoveries while travelling
Nicopolis (the City of Victory) was a central Roman town built in Western Greece to commemorate the victory of Octavius (later known as Augustus) over Antony and Cleopatra, and, by extent, the evolution of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire. Today, the ancient remains are scattered over a large area, dotting the fertile land, and interacting in a perpetual dialogue with the agricultural settlements of the modern inhabitants. One of these archaeological sites hosts the ruins of the Domus of Ekdikos (Advocate) Georgios, that is, a massive villa of significant architectural and historical value.
Despite its importance, I admit I was not particularly drawn to this building. Instead, I found the nearby Early-Byzantine church with its stunning mosaics much more exciting. Still, as I strolled through the mansion’s corridors trying to figure out the arrangement of the rooms and imagining the edifice in all its former glory, I came across a little treasure: a small Roman Tabula Lusoria, that is, an ancient triliza, a predecessor of the modern tic-tac-toe if you will.
Table games were quite popular among both ancient Greeks and Romans, as men enjoyed honing skills that would later prove priceless in the battlefield. Tabula Lusoria consisted of a circular board divided by two or more lines. It had eight points on the perimeter and one in the centre, so, a total of nine playing spaces which each player’s beads (checkers’ predecessors) could occupy, based on the moves permitted by the lines. Each player had three beads of the same colour, and the winner was the first person to put all his checkers in a row.
As you can notice, the tabula lusoria in Nicopolis is quite small, carved on one of the slabs of the corridors. I choose to imagine it must have been a slow, dull day when two friends decided to rest in the shade cast by the wall and engraved the familiar round shape on the floor to play a round or two, much like we sketch a tic-tac-toe today on the ground or a piece of paper. Hidden among the rest of the rocks, and faded away by time, the ancient board game is easy to be missed, so I was surprised – and thrilled – I spotted it on my own. Ultimately, it is such small fun finds that make a travelling experience even more memorable and joyfully delicious than what it usually is!
Photo credits: © Konstantina Sakellariou
