1 - 3

Crassus took Kemsa's denarii and handed him two small disks. They had Vs inscribed on one side, and the words “remittam libenter” inscribed on the other.

“We will be exchanging these tokens. Which any legionary will exchange for denarii. You see that we are not gambling?” asked Crassus.

Kemsa was aghast to think that he would be involved in such a flaunting of the law. And yet – perhaps it was acceptable.

As Kemsa was lost in thought, he was lead to a large crate around which about a dozen or so legionaries were gathered. He knew four of them –members of his contubernium: Juncus, Galus, Polinus, and Tiberus. The remaining men seemed familiar, but Kemsa did not know them personally – assuredly other members of the cohort.

Kemsa watched the game for a few minutes, trying to understand it. Each man shook three dice in a cup. Then, seeing only the dice in his own cup, each man would bet how many of a given number would be showing amongst all the dice on the makeshift table. Everyone would roll, and then one man would say “two threes”, another would say “two fives”, another would say “five threes”, and everyone would be surprised.

Once Kemsa thought he had a firm grip on how the game worked, he grabbed one of the extra cups of dice, and threw one of his V chips onto the pile. He shook his dice, and looked at them. He saw a I and two IVs. When the betting came around to him, he made a big bet – thirteen fours.

However, he hadn't understood the game as well as he had thought. He lost his first five-denarii chit, and then his second. Then, as he realized he could no longer play, he spent his remaining denarii on yet another token from Crassus, which he lost with just as much proficiency as he had lost the first two.

“Uh-oh,” Thought Kemsa, “now I'm out of money”.