There are activities that fall into the category of the forgotten things, and these are the things that most people do not do anymore such as board games, strolls or picnics in the park. Luckily, I am proud to say that I belong to a generation where we used to do activities that require social interaction. I still remember playing many games on the street with my neighbours such as hide and seek, “el juego de las cebollitas” which is similar to the tug of war game, or soccer. Way back then, however, there was another generation where children used to interact to each other by singing chants like “La víbora de la mar” (The sea snake). Children who played the old fashioned games in the generations previously mentioned were common in ancient Rome. Therefore, the focus of this blog will be about children games in ancient Rome that were passed to new generations until the creation of social media. The process of passing the knowledge from adults to children is called enculturation.

One game that was common among children from ancient Rome until modern times is the ocellates or marbles which were little round stones made of clay or transparent glass. The game was popular that it is believed that the emperor Caesar Augustus played with these toys.

[1] clay ocellates

[2] Children playing with marbles in the resent day

Another well known game of the Roman empire was called Nuts or nuces. This game is similar to knucklebones, and both boys and girls could play. Its purpose was to toss and catch the object using only one hand.

[3] A high relief of a sarcophagus that shows children playing with nuts

[4] A much modern version of knucklebones called jacks

Works cited:

Francisco Javier Tostado. El juego en la antigua Roma, by Tostado, Francisco Javier. Accessed July 3, 2013. https://franciscojaviertostado.com/2013/07/03/el-juego-en-la-antigua-roma/