ABSTRACT
Introduction In his collection on dream interpretation written in the second century ce, Artemidorus reassures readers that “seeing a child play with dice, knucklebones, or counters is not bad, since it is customary for children to be always playing.”1 Yet even when actual children could not be seen, images of children at play with toys, pets, and peers could easily be seen in domestic décor, commemorative monuments, even on objects of daily use. From Artemidorus’ list, play with knucklebones is particularly well represented. At Vindonissa, a legionary camp in northern Switzerland occupied early in the first century ce, a piece of imported terra sigillata was discovered whose decorative frieze shows girls playing at knucklebones. The lavish tomb of the Haterii in Rome depicts three young children playing with knucklebones (or perhaps nuts) beneath the couch where Haterius’ wife reclines. From Herculaneum, a painting on marble portrays two girls in the midst of a game, identified as daughters of Niobe by the accompanying inscription (see Figure 8.1).2 A passage in Pliny the Elder’s Natural History further illustrates just how common seeing such images was. In his excursus on the history of ancient art, he includes among the masters of Classical and Hellenistic art the fifthcentury sculptor Polyclitus, renowned for his bronze statues of boys and young men such as the Doryphoros (“Spear-bearer”). Less well-known today but not in Antiquity was Polyclitus’ statue of two boys playing at knucklebones known by its Greek name Astragalizontes. Pliny declares “it is generally considered to be the most perfect work of art in existence.”3 He casually adds that the statue stood in the emperor Titus’ atrium, apparently finding it unremarkable that what the leading figure of his day chose to display in the central room of his house was a scene of children at play.
