Greek and Roman Activities

Rota: A Game of Roman Tic Tac Toe

The Roman Game of Rota

In ancient Rome, people had to make up games for fun just like today. One of the games that the Romans played was Rota, also known as Roman Tic Tac Toe. We do not know for sure what the Romans called this game but we call it Rota, because that is the Latin word for wheel. 

Ancient Roman Rota Board Carved into the Ground
"Tres en ratlla a la romana, Fòrum Vell, Lepcis Magna" by Sebastià Giralt is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Romans played many simple games, frequently using dice and they loved to bet.

In fact, some game boards have been found carved into the sidewalks and streets of ancient Roman towns. This game is from the old forum in Leptis Magna (also known as Lepcis Manga) in Libya. The city also happens to the birth place Emperor Septimius Severus, Rome’s first emperor to hail from Africa.

Imagine Romans sitting around on the sidewalk whiling away the time playing an ancient board game together. They often enjoyed playing games in other public places, like the bath houses. Roman soldiers were known to play Rota while waiting in forts for any orders. Anywhere we play games today, you can imagine Romans playing too. 

Rota is a very fast and simple game and you can play it almost anywhere. Each player moved three pieces around on a circular board until they got three in a row. The reason that Rota is called Roman Tic-Tac-Toe is that it is played on a board that has nine spaces and the main objective is to get three pieces in a row. However,  these two games are different because Rota takes longer,  you can move the pieces from their original positions, and unlike Tic-Tac-Toe it cannot end in a tie. 

Printable Color Rota Board
Free Printable Rota Board for you to Color

Try playing Rota using a MythologyCrafts.com printable game board.  These boards include a few symbols of the Roman Gods to give you good luck while playing.  Can you guess which god is represented by each symbol? If you need to check your answers, tune into our YouTube Video on Rota

You can print the black and white board and color it in yourself here or print out an already colored version here.  You will also need two sets of 3 tokens. Just make sure you can tell the difference between the two sets.  You can use dimes and pennies, pebbles of two different colors or even make your own.  I painted some pebbles with two different colors. 

Want even more fun? Host a Rota tournament with your friends.  Make our Laurel Wreath and present it to the winner, hold a Rota victory parade around your house!

The Supplies:

Rota Board Supplies
Ancient Roman Tic-Tac-Toe Rota Board

The Rules:

  • The board starts empty
  • Each player gets three pieces
  • Players take turns placing their pieces on the round spaces on the board
  • You may ONLY place a piece on an open space
  • Once all the pieces are on the board, players continue to take turns moving pieces to ANY OPEN space (it does not need to be near your token) until one person gets three in a row 
  • This person is declared the winner of the game

Need More Help? Want to see a Game in Action? Watch the video