(; ''On the Art of Dice'') is the name of a now-lost book written by the fourth Roman emperor

Claudius Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus (; 1 August 10 BC – 13 October AD 54) was the fourth Roman emperor, ruling from AD 41 to 54. A member of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, Claudius was born to Nero Claudius Drusus, Drusu ...

. As the name suggests, it details how to play the game of

dice Dice (singular die or dice) are small, throwable objects with marked sides that can rest in multiple positions. They are used for generating random values, commonly as part of tabletop games, including dice games, board games, role-playing g ...

History

In book five, chapter 33 of the work by Roman historian

Suetonius Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus (), commonly referred to as Suetonius ( ; c. AD 69 – after AD 122), was a Roman historian who wrote during the early Imperial era of the Roman Empire. His most important surviving work is a set of biographies ...

(c. AD 69122), the author discusses many of Roman Emperor

's vices. The final one considered was the leader's love of

. Suetonius notes, " laudiusplayed dice most avidly, on the art of which he also wrote a book" (). Mention of this work is only to be found in Suetonius's work. The title seems to be mostly speculative, and based merely on the assertion by Suetonius that the book was "on the art of

ice Ice is water frozen into a solid state, typically forming at or below temperatures of 0 degrees Celsius or Depending on the presence of impurities such as particles of soil or bubbles of air, it can appear transparent or a more or less opaq ...

.Suetonius, ''

The Twelve Caesars ''De vita Caesarum'' (Latin; "About the Life of the Caesars"), commonly known as ''The Twelve Caesars'', is a set of twelve biographies of Julius Caesar and the first 11 emperors of the Roman Empire written by Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus. The g ...

'', 5.33. As a result, in textual history, the book became simply known as ; for instance, in 1761, the librarian Heinrich Jonathan Clodius, in his reference work (''Bibliographic Outline of Recreation'') calls it "the Book on the Art of Dice" () and directly references Suetonius in naming it as such. While it seems reasonable to conclude that the book concerned dice, exactly what was included in the book is a mystery, as the work has been lost. Austin notes that it is very possible that the work may have dealt with a newer form of the game.Austin (1935), p. 78, note 1.

References

Bibliography

* * * {{Cite book, publisher = IIAS, location=

Leiden, Netherlands Leiden (; in English and archaic Dutch also Leyden) is a city and municipality in the province of South Holland, Netherlands. The municipality of Leiden has a population of 119,713, but the city forms one densely connected agglomeration with ...

, last = Voogt, first = Alexander J. de, title = New Approaches to Board Games Research: Asian Origins and Future Perspectives, date = 1995, via=

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

, language=Latin Claudius Lost books Dice 1st-century books Books about games