로마 시대 20면체 유리 주사위 화제

기원 후 2세기경에 제작된 것으로 보이는 20면체 주사위가 화제다.

최근 크리스티 경매에서 약 1천 8백만 원에 팔린 주사위는 짙은 청록색 유리 주사위로 각 면에는 로마 특유의 심벌들이 그려져 있다.

소유자는 자신의 아버지가 1920년대 이집트에서 구한 것이라고 설명한다.

너비 5.2cm 크기의 주사위가 어떤 놀이에 사용되었는지는 역사학자들도 해명하지 못하고 있다.

Romans Used 20-Sided Dice Two Millennia Before D&D

June 15, 2008 | 6:00:00 AMCategories: Games  
Many of us geeks take great pride in the ability to recite the history of role-playing games based on the 20-sided die, but what about the history of the die itself? Apparently it predates the original Dungeons and Dragons by almost two millenia.

Christie's, auctioneer to the rich and famous, sold a glass d20 from Roman times. It was included in a collection of other antiquities that sold in 2003. The markings on the die don't appear to be either Arabic or Roman numerals, but it's probably a safe bet that it was used in a game of chance. As the auction catalog notes that several polyhedral dice are known from the Roman era, but remarks, " Modern scholarship has not yet established the game for which these dice were used."

I wonder - how do you say "critical hit" in Latin?  (Ed. note: "maxima plaga")

The seller acquired this die from his father, who picked it up in the 1920s in Egypt. Sounds like the beginning of an Indiana Jones movie, doesn't it?

(Thanks to Marty for the pointer. Photo from Christie's web site.)