In spite of the laws enacted against gaming, the court of the Emperor
Augustus was greatly addicted to that vice, and gave it additional
stimulus among the nation. Although, however, he was passionately fond
of gambling, and made light of the imputation on his character,(25)
it appears that in frequenting the gambling table he had other motives
besides mere cupidity. Writing to his daughter he said, 'I send you a
sum with which I should have gratified my companions, if they had wished
to play at dice or _odds and evens_.' On another occasion he wrote to
Tiberius:--'If I had exacted my winnings during the festival of Minerva;
if I had not lavished my money on all sides; instead of losing twenty
thousand sestercii (about L1000), I should have gained one hundred and
fifty thousand (L7500). I prefer it thus, however; for my bounty should
win me immense glory.'(26)
(25) Aleae rumorem nullo modo expavit. Suet. in Vita Augusti.
(26) Sed hoc malo: benignitas enim mea me ad coelestem gloriam efferet.
_Ubi supra_.
This gambling propensity subjected Augustus to the lash of popular
epigrams; among the rest, the following:
Postquam bis classe victus naves perdidit, Aliquando ut vincat, ludit
assidud aleam.
'He lost at sea; was beaten twice, And tries to win at least with dice.'
But although a satirist by profession, the sleek courtier Horace spared
the emperor's vice, contenting himself with only declaring that play was
forbidden.(27) The two following verses of his, usually applied to the
effects of gaming, really refer only to _RAILLERY._
(27) Carm. lib. III. Od. xxiv.
Ludus enim genuit trepidum certamen et iram; Ira truces inimicitias et
funebre bellum.(28)
(28) Epist. lib. I. xix.
He, however, has recorded the curious fact of an old Roman gambler, who
was always attended by a slave, to pick up his dice for him and put them
in the box.(29) Doubtless, Horace would have lashed the vice of gambling
had it not been the 'habitual sin' of his courtly patrons.
(29) Lib. II. Sat. vii. v. 15.
It seems that Augustus not only gambled to excess, but that he gloried
in the character of a gamester. Of himself he says, 'Between meals we
played like old crones both yesterday and today.'(30)
(30) Inter coenam lusimus (gr gerontikws) et heri et hodie.
When he had no regular players near him, he would play with children at
dice, at nuts, or bones. It has been suggested that this emperor gave
in to the indulgence of gambling in order to stifle his remorse. If
his object in encouraging this vice was to make people forget his
proscriptions and to create a diversion in his favour, the artifice may
be considered equal to any of the political ruses of this astute ruler,
whose false virtues were for a long time vaunted only through ignorance,
or in order to flatter his imitators.
The passion of gambling was transmitted, with the empire, to the family
of the Caesars. At the gaming table Caligula stooped even to falsehood
and perjury. It was whilst gambling that he conceived his most
diabolical projects; when the game was against him he would quit the
table abruptly, and then, monster as he was, satiated with rapine, would
roam about his palace venting his displeasure.
One day, in such a humour, he caught a glimpse of two Roman knights; he
had them arrested and confiscated their property. Then returning to the
gaming table, he exultingly exclaimed that he had never made a better
throw!(31) On another occasion, after having condemned to death several
Gauls of great opulence, he immediately went back to his gambling
companions and said:--'I pity you when I see you lose a few sestertii,
whilst, with a stroke of the pen, I have just won six hundred
millions.'(32)
(31) Exultans rediit, gloriansque se nunquam prosperiore alea usum.
Suet. in _Vita Calig_.
(32) Thirty millions of pounds sterling. The sestertius was worth 1_s_.
3 3/4_d_.
The Emperor Claudius played like an imbecile, and Nero like a madman.
The former would send for the persons whom he had executed the day
before, to play with him; and the latter, lavishing the treasures of the
public exchequer, would stake four hundred thousand sestertii (L20,000)
on a single throw of the dice.
Claudius played at dice on his journeys, having the interior of his
carriage so arranged as to prevent the motion from interfering with the
game.
From that period the title of courtier and gambler became synonymous.
Gaming was the means of securing preferment; it was by gambling
that Vitellius opened to himself so grand a career; gaming made him
indispensable to Claudius.(33)
(33) Claudio per aleae studium familiaris. Suet.in Vita Vitelli.
Seneca, in his Play on the death of Claudius, represents him as in the
lower regions condemned to pick up dice for ever, putting them into a
box without a bottom!(34)
(34) Nam quotiens missurus erat resonante fritillo, Utraque subducto
fugiebat tessera fundo. _Lusus de Morte Claud. Caesar_.
Caligula was reproached for having played at dice on the day of his
sister's funeral; and Domitian was blamed for gaming from morning to
night, and without excepting the festivals of the Roman calendar; but
it seems ridiculous to note such improprieties in comparison with their
habitual and atrocious crimes.
The terrible and inexorable satirist Juvenal was the contemporary of
Domitian and ten other emperors; and the following is his description of
the vice in the gaming days of Rome:
'When was the madness of games of chance more furious? Now-a-days,
not content with carrying his purse to the gaming table, the gamester
conveys his iron chest to the play-room. It is there that, as soon as
the gaming instruments are distributed, you witness the most terrible
contests. Is it not mere madness to lose one hundred thousand sestertii
and refuse a garment to a slave perishing with cold?'(35)
(35) Sat. I. 87.
It seems that the Romans played for ready money, and had not invented
that multitude of signs by the aid of which, without being retarded
by the weight of gold and silver, modern gamblers can ruin themselves
secretly and without display.
The rage for gambling spread over the Roman provinces, and among
barbarous nations who had never been so much addicted to the vice as
after they had the misfortune to mingle with the Romans.
The evil continued to increase, stimulated by imperial example. The day
on which Didius Julianus was proclaimed Emperor, he walked over the
dead and bloody body of Pertinax, and began to play at dice in the next
room.(36)
(36) Dion Cass. _Hist. Rom_. l. lxxiii.
At the end of the fourth century, the following state of things at Rome
is described by Gibbon, quoting from Ammianus Marcellinus:
'Another method of introduction into the houses and society of the
"great," is derived from the profession of gaming; or, as it is more
politely styled, of play. The confederates are united by a strict and
indissoluble bond of friendship, or rather of conspiracy; a superior
degree of skill in the "tessarian" art, is a sure road to wealth
and reputation. A master of that sublime science who, in a supper or
assembly, is placed below a magistrate, displays in his countenance the
surprise and indignation which Cato might be supposed to feel when he
was refused the praetorship by the votes of a capricious people.'(37)
(37) Amm. Marcellin. lib. XIV. c. vi.
Finally, at the epoch when Constantine abandoned Rome never to return,
every inhabitant of that city, down to the populace, was addicted to
gambling.