Byzantium or the Eastern Roman Empire survived the fall of Rome for another thousand years or so.  During this time the people still played games and had lives that grew out of the Roman culture.  I discovered this fun set of videos on YouTube, and they have several others I did not embed that you ought to go see if the subject of Ancient times interests you.

These are about games people played.  There have been found game boards and game pieces and dice, but the rules are much more difficult to discover.  Scholars have attempted to accurately recreate the rules by studying those games which evolved from these older games and from any tiny reference that might be found.

You can still purchase a nice wood game board for Nine Men’s Morris from Amazon because that is where I acquired mine. I suspect there are other sources that I will eventually get to explore.  However, as you will be able to see from a couple of the videos (not all game boards are clear in the videos–sigh) it would not be difficult to create your own game boards on fabric or wood.  My plan is to go to our local Shire leather guild meetings eventually to make a pouch to hold my Nine Men’s Morris game with room for another game board, perhaps from cloth.

Ancient Roman Games:

Three Men’s Morris/ Rota

Three Men’s Morris on the rectangular playing board is very much a form of tictactoe. Amazing how old that simple child’s game must be. The circular playing board is a fascinating variation.

Nine Men’s Morris/History of the Name

I hope you enjoyed these videos.

 Dear Lord, thank You for the leisure to enjoy games and good company. Please bless people with opportunities to enjoy their leisure in company.  Amen.