Ludus Latrunculorum - Rules, History & Strategy Guide

Ludus latrunculorum, "the game of little soldiers" or "little bandits", was the strategy game of the Roman world. Boards scratched into stone and sets of glass counters have been excavated across the Empire, from the forts of Hadrian’s Wall to garrisons in Egypt and Syria, and Roman authors from Varro to Ovid mention the game and its skilled players. A famous epigram praises a champion whose "glass soldiers" never lost.

The game descends from the Greek petteia family of flanking games and stayed popular for centuries before fading in late antiquity. No complete rulebook survives, so modern play relies on reconstructions built from the boards themselves, the ancient references, and the mechanics of related custodian-capture games like hnefatafl and seega; the version played today uses an 8x8 board, twelve men per side, and rook movement.

Latrunculi is a pure strategy duel with no dice: two even forces, orthogonal movement, and captures made by trapping an enemy man between two of yours.

1. Set up twelve men per side: the full back row plus the middle four squares of the second row.
2. On your turn, move one man any number of empty squares along a rank or file, like a rook.
3. Capture by closing a trap: finish a move so an enemy man is orthogonally pinned between the man you moved and another of your men.
4. Remember that stepping into a gap between two enemies yourself is safe; only the closing move captures.
5. Win by reducing the enemy to two men, blockading him with no legal move, or leading on men after 60 captureless moves.

• Move in pairs: a man without a nearby partner threatens nothing, so advance men in mutually supporting duos.
• Fight for open files early; rook movement turns every open line into a highway for surprise flanks.
• Use safe entry as bait: sitting between two enemy men often forks two capture threats they cannot both answer.
• Count the exchange before wading into a cluster; the player who closes the final trap usually comes out ahead.
• Play the clock: with a material lead, simplify and let the 60-move siege rule convert your advantage.

Reconstructions differ mainly in board size (8x8, 8x12, and 7x8 boards all survive), starting rows, and whether pieces move one square or like rooks; some older rulesets add a "dux" piece borrowed from descriptions of related games. The custodian capture is common to the whole family, which stretches from Greek petteia through Egyptian seega to the Norse tafl games.