Vettweiss-Froitzheim Dice Tower

Lore & Background

The dice tower was discovered in 1982 near the modern villages of Vettweiss and Froitzheim in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. During the Roman era this location was in the province of Germania Inferior on the Imperial frontier with Germania, at the site of a villa. The major military center of Cologne was located nearby. The tower dates to the fourth century AD and was apparently presented as a gift.

Reader's Guide

The Vettweiss-Froitzheim Dice Tower is significant as the earliest surviving artifact to mention the Picts, a people who lived in what is now Scotland. Its longer Latin text commemorates a military defeat of the Picts, providing a rare contemporary Roman reference to them. The tower also illustrates Roman gaming culture: it is an upright, hollow cuboid of copper-alloy plate designed to sit level on a flat surface. The top is open for introducing dice, and it contains three levels of projecting baffles that produce random motion as dice fall through. Dice emerge at the base via a miniature flight of steps, ringing three bells (one survives intact). The tower is decorated with pierced patterns and two Latin texts. The front reads 'PICTOS VICTOS HOSTIS DELETA LVDITE SECVRI' ('The Picts are defeated, the enemies destroyed, play with confidence'), and around the top of the remaining faces is 'UTERE FELIX VIVAS' ('Have a happy life'). The texts are written in a grammatically irregular form of Latin. As a gift, it reflects social and military contexts of the late Roman frontier.

Did You Know?

• The dice tower was discovered in 1982 near the modern villages of Vettweiss and Froitzheim in Germany.
• It is one of the earliest surviving artifacts to mention the Picts, though the earliest known reference is from a Roman panegyric of AD 297.
• The tower contains three levels of projecting baffles to randomize dice throws.
• One of three bells that formerly hung above the dice exit survives intact.