Tavern Games

Hypnus, what are you waiting for, lazybones? Pour immortal Falernian measures; such vows demand an aged jar. Let us drink five measures and six and eight to make up 'Gaius' and 'Julius' and 'Proculus'." (Martial, Epigrams XI.36)

Each evening, in the taverns of every large city, poorer Romans enjoyed drinking games. These included the toasting of ladies, present or absent, according to their name—one measure of wine to be thrown down for each letter in it. Thus nine measures were drunk for VETUSTINA who was reputed to have buried two hundred husbands; and another nine measures for PROCULINA who was best known for having falsely accused her husband of adultery so that she could be free to marry her own secret lover (see Martial, Epigrams III.93 and IV.22, respectively). Other times, the rhythm of the measures to be drunk was dictated by the roll of a die.

Though the usual Roman measure of wine (a cyathus) was only about one-sixteenth of the content of a modern French wine bottle, the rapidity of consumption and sheer amount of wine—almost certainly drunk undiluted during games of this sort—made the evening a thoroughly rowdy one. Many a pickpocket made his living off these revelers, as they headed home across the silent squares and through the city's dark alleyways where even the peace-keeping vigiles were loath to venture after dusk.