Lo Stomachion di Archimede nelle testimonianze antiche

Abstract

Stomachion was an ancient game, widespread in Greece and Rome. Players used fourteen tesserae of different geometrical shapes, initially arranged to form a square. An Archimedes' homonymous treatise is fragmentarily transmitted by an Arabic translation and a Byzantine palimpsest, recently rediscovered. Fragments are here studied together with the testimony about the game of ancient authors (all Latin: Lucretius, Caesius Bassus, Aelius Festus Apthonius, Ausonius, Ennodius); on the one hand they confirm denomination and purpose of the game, on the other hand they exclude the use of combinatorial analysis in Archimedes' treatise.