Turricula – Roman Dice Tower

Turricula is a Roman Dice Tower for the game of dice or other Table Top Games! It can be put together in a minute and dismantled again for easy transportation.

Number of players: any
Duration: —
Materials: Wood
Measurements: 28 x 12 x 28 cm / 11″ x 4.7″ x 11″
Supplied with 2 wooden dice

The turricula is an object that in the world of the Roman Empire was very common, especially in the tabernae and popinae where the ancient Romans often found themselves spending time in the afternoon playing dice and was used to avoid fights and stabbings when the bets got too high.

A bit of history
The turriculae were used to prevent manipulation in the throwing of the dice, or the use of rigged dice, of which many finds have been found that had bronze plates inside to unbalance the results.
The dice were inserted from above and, thanks to the oblique blades inside, they performed random rotations, thus preventing cheating.
Marziale wrote us an epigram, entitled “turricula”, in which he confirms the impossibility of deceiving opponents.

“Turricula.
Quae scit composites manus improba mittere talos, Si per misit, nil nisi vote feret”
The Tower rolls dice.
The dishonest hand that knows how to throw loaded (lit. well-prepared) dice,
if he pitches through me, he will get nothing but hopes.
(Martial, CIV, 16)

The proposed one is the reproduction of the specimen preserved at the Rheinisches Landesmuseum in Bonn, the result of the discovery of an excavation in Wettweiss-Froitzheim in the 1980s.
Like almost everything created by the Romans, it bears a series of writings, in particular, a front hexagram that reads:

PICTOS VICTOS
HOSTIS DELETA
SECURE LUDITES

(The Picts are defeated, hostilities have ceased, play safe)
The hexagram (the use of six words of six letters each) has a value linked to luck as Roman dice games were closely linked to the numbers six and twelve.
The original turricula found in Germany dates back to the 4th century. AD, however, the writing refers to a much earlier event, the defeat of the Picts in northern Roman Britain three centuries earlier, it can therefore be deduced that the original is also a copy, which is not surprising given the skill and predilection of the Romans for mass production.

Finally, on the remaining three sides, it features the writing VTERE FELIX VIVAS, which can be translated as simply “use me and live happily”.

*IMPORTANT NOTICE!* If you consider ordering several products at once please CONTACT US FIRST. In this case price for shipping won’t be simply summarizing, it will require separate calculations and most likely will be cheaper for you.
Local taxes, fees, and customs charges are the sole responsibility of the customer.
We claim up to 7 days for processing your order. As a rule this happens much faster – in a day or two. We do this because all products by ARX are being consecrated with authentic religious ceremony before shipment. The ceremony begins with auspicium – the ritual of requesting Iuppiter’s permission for the rites following. This permission may be and may not be granted right away. Sometimes it takes several days to receive it. So sometimes (very rarely) shipment may be delayed a little longer.