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150-572: The United States Backgammon Federation ( USBGF ) is dedicated to promoting the game of Backgammon in the United States , and is a member of World Backgammon Federation . This article about a sports-related organization based in the United States is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This board game -related article or section is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Backgammon Backgammon

300-481: A dumbbell -shaped board, counters and dice. Although its precise rules are unknown, it has been termed the Game of 20 Squares and Irving Finkel has suggested a possible reconstruction. The Royal Game of Ur from 2600 BC may also be an ancestor or intermediate of modern-day table games like backgammon and is the oldest game for which rules have been handed down. It used tetrahedral dice. Various other board games spanning

450-462: A sensational victory against Bulgaria and the Kievan Rus' in 971. John in particular was an astute administrator who reformed military structures and implemented effective fiscal policies. After John's death, Constantine VII's grandsons Basil II and Constantine VIII ruled jointly for half a century, although the latter exercised no real power before Basil's death in 1025. Their early reign

600-589: A backgammon tournament system in 1963, then organized the first major international backgammon tournament in March 1964, which attracted royalty, celebrities and the press. The game became a huge fad and was played on college campuses, in discothèques and at country clubs; stockbrokers and bankers began playing at conservative men's clubs. People young and old all across the country dusted off their boards and pieces. Cigarette, liquor and car companies began to sponsor tournaments, and Hugh Hefner held backgammon parties at

750-414: A blot", "home", "doublet", "bear off" and "men" are recognisably the same as in the modern game; others, such as "binding a man" (adding a second man to a point) "binding up the tables" (taking all one's first 6 points), "fore game", "latter game", "nipping a man" (hitting a blot and playing it on forwards) "playing at length" (using both dice to move one man) are no longer in vogue. By no later than 1850,

900-555: A board when opened, for a tournament game, should be at a minimum of 44 cm by 55 cm to a maximum of 66 cm by 88 cm. Each side of the board has a track of 12 long triangles, called points . The points form a continuous track in the shape of a horseshoe , and are numbered from 1 to 24. In the most commonly used setup, each player begins with fifteen pieces; two are placed on their 24-point, three on their 8-point, and five each on their 13-point and their 6-point. The two players move their pieces in opposing directions, from

1050-467: A combination of external threats and internal instabilities caused the Roman state to splinter as regional armies acclaimed their generals as "soldier-emperors". One of these, Diocletian ( r.  284–305 ), seeing that the state was too big to be ruled by one man, attempted to fix the problem by instituting a Tetrarchy , or rule of four, and dividing the empire into eastern and western halves. Although

1200-435: A computer this game was solved by Hugh Sconyers around 1994, meaning that exact equities for all cube positions are available for all 32 million possible positions. Nard is a traditional tables game from Persia which may be an ancestor of backgammon. It has a different opening layout in which all 15 pieces start on the 24th point. During play pieces may not be hit and there are no gammons or backgammons. Ban-sugoroku

1350-645: A considerable increase in the size of urban settlements, together with a notable upsurge in new towns. Trade was also flourishing; the Venetians, the Genoese and others opened up the ports of the Aegean to commerce, shipping goods from the Crusader states and Fatimid Egypt to the west and trading with the empire via Constantinople. Manuel's death on 24 September 1180 left his 11-year-old son Alexios II Komnenos on

1500-464: A contested legacy to Roman identity and to associate negative connotations from ancient Latin literature. The adjective "Byzantine", which derived from Byzantion (Latinised as Byzantium ), the name of the Greek settlement Constantinople was established on, was only used to describe the inhabitants of that city; it did not refer to the empire, which they called Romanía —"Romanland". After

1650-560: A decree prohibiting his court officials and subjects from playing. They were played in Germany in the 12th century, and had reached Iceland by the 13th century. In Spain , the Alfonso X manuscript Libro de los juegos , completed in 1283, describes rules for a number of dice and table games in addition to its discussion of chess. By the 17th century, games at tables had spread to Sweden . A wooden board and counters were recovered from

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1800-649: A dichotomy between the Greek East and Latin West . These cultural spheres continued to diverge after Constantine I ( r.  324–337 ) moved the capital to Constantinople and legalised Christianity . Under Theodosius I ( r. 379–395 ), Christianity became the state religion , and other religious practices were proscribed . Greek gradually replaced Latin for official use as Latin fell into disuse. The empire experienced several cycles of decline and recovery throughout its history, reaching its greatest extent after

1950-430: A direct descendant of the earlier Roman Ludus duodecim scriptorum ('Game of twelve lines') with the board's middle row of points removed, and only the two outer rows remaining. Ludus duodecim scriptorum used a board with three rows of 12 points each, with the 15 pieces being moved in opposing directions by the two players across three rows according to the roll of the three cubical dice. Little specific text about

2100-595: A large number in Venice. According to chronicler Niketas Choniates , a prostitute was even set up on the patriarchal throne. When order had been restored, the crusaders and the Venetians proceeded to implement their agreement; Baldwin of Flanders was elected emperor of a new Latin Empire , and the Venetian Thomas Morosini was chosen as patriarch. The lands divided up among the leaders included most of

2250-512: A lengthy conflict against Sasanid Persia and ended in 363 with the death of his son-in-law Julian . The short Valentinianic dynasty , occupied with wars against barbarians , religious debates, and anti-corruption campaigns, ended in the East with the death of Valens at the Battle of Adrianople in 378. Valens's successor, Theodosius I ( r.  379–395 ), restored political stability in

2400-494: A letter dated 1635. In English, the word "backgammon" is most likely derived from "back" and Middle English : gamen , meaning "game" or "play". Meanwhile, the first use documented by the Oxford English Dictionary was in 1650. In 1666, it is reported that the "old name for backgammon used by Shakespeare and others" was Tables. However, it is clear from Willughby that "tables" was a generic name and that

2550-651: A line through the Adriatic Sea and south to Cyrene, Libya . This encompassed most of the Balkans , all of modern Greece, Turkey, Syria , Palestine ; North Africa, primarily with modern Egypt and Libya ; the Aegean islands along with Crete , Cyprus and Sicily , and a small settlement in Crimea . The landscape of the Empire was defined by the fertile fields of Anatolia , long mountain ranges and rivers such as

2700-490: A player decides to double the opponent, the value is then a double of whatever face value is shown (e.g. if two automatic doubles have occurred putting the cube up to 4, the first in-game double will be for 8 points). The Murphy rule is not an official rule in backgammon and is rarely, if ever, seen in use at officially sanctioned tournaments. The "Jacoby rule", named after Oswald Jacoby , allows gammons and backgammons to count for their respective double and triple values only if

2850-460: A player is one point away from winning a match, that player's opponent will always want to double as early as possible in order to catch up. Whether the game is worth one point or two, the trailing player must win to continue the match. To balance the situation, the Crawford rule requires that when a player first reaches a score one point short of winning, neither player may use the doubling cube for

3000-459: A player to enter a checker from the bar, and that player stops rolling and playing until at least one point becomes open (occupied by one or zero checkers) due to the opponent's moves. A turn ends only when the player has removed his or her dice from the board. Prior to this moment, a move can be undone and replayed an unlimited number of times. When all of a player's checkers are in that player's home board, that player may start removing them; this

3150-410: A roll of 5-5 allows the player to make four moves of five spaces each. On any roll, a player must move according to the numbers on both dice if it is at all possible to do so. If one or both numbers do not allow a legal move, the player forfeits that portion of the roll and the turn ends. If moves can be made according to either one die or the other, but not both, the higher number must be used. If one die

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3300-450: A small fleet of 100 ships to defend the capital, but other than that he was indifferent to the populace. He was finally overthrown when Isaac II Angelos , surviving an imperial assassination attempt, seized power with the aid of the people and had Andronikos killed. The reign of Isaac II, and more so that of his brother Alexios III , saw the collapse of what remained of the centralised machinery of Byzantine government and defence. Although

3450-417: A speedy and marked improvement. Gradually, however, Andronikos's reign deteriorated. The aristocrats were infuriated against him, and to make matters worse, Andronikos seemed to have become increasingly unbalanced; executions and violence became increasingly common, and his reign turned into a reign of terror. Andronikos seemed almost to seek the extermination of the aristocracy as a whole. The struggle against

3600-517: A two-month siege on 29 May 1453. The final Byzantine emperor, Constantine XI Palaiologos , was last seen casting off his imperial regalia and throwing himself into hand-to-hand combat after the walls of the city were taken. The Empire was centred in what is now Greece and Turkey with Constantinople as its capital. In the 5th century, it controlled the eastern basis of the Mediterranean running east from Singidunum (modern Belgrade ) in

3750-413: Is a gammon or double game worth 2 points. A backgammon or triple game is worth 3 points and occurs when the losing player has borne off no pieces and has one or more on the bar and/or in the winner's home table (inner board). To speed up match play and to provide an added dimension for strategy, a doubling cube is usually used. The doubling cube is not a die to be rolled, but rather a marker, with

3900-672: Is a Japanese game that is a close relative of backgammon. It utilizes the same starting position but has slightly different rules. Byzantine Empire The Byzantine Empire , also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire , was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred in Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages . The eastern half of the Empire survived the conditions that caused

4050-498: Is a relatively modern American English term derived from another board game, draughts , which in US English is called checkers . The objective is for players to bear off all their disc pieces from the board before their opponent can do the same. As the playing time for each individual game is short, it is often played in matches where victory is awarded to the first player to reach a certain number of points. The dimensions of

4200-400: Is a two-player game of contrary movement in which each player has fifteen pieces known traditionally as men (short for 'tablemen'), but increasingly known as 'checkers' in the United States in recent decades, analogous to the other board game of checkers . The backgammon table pieces move along twenty-four ' points ' according to the roll of two dice . The objective of the game is to move

4350-412: Is called "bearing off". A roll of 1 may be used to bear off a checker from the 1-point, a 2 from the 2-point, and so on. If all of a player's checkers are on points lower than the number showing on a particular die, the player must use that die to bear off one checker from the highest occupied point. For example, if a player rolls a 6 and a 5, but has no checkers on the 6-point and two on the 5-point, then

4500-541: Is evidence that some Komnenian heirs had set up a semi-independent state in Trebizond before 1204. According to the historian Alexander Vasiliev , "the dynasty of the Angeloi, Greek in its origin, ... accelerated the ruin of the Empire, already weakened without and disunited within." In 1198, Pope Innocent III broached the subject of a new crusade through legates and encyclical letters. The stated intent of

4650-547: Is impossible to precisely date the foundation of the Byzantine Empire. In a series of conflicts between the third and first centuries   BC, the Roman Republic gradually established hegemony over the eastern Mediterranean , while its government ultimately transformed into the one-person rule of an emperor . The Roman Empire enjoyed a period of relative stability until the third century AD , when

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4800-449: Is no consensus on a "foundation date" for the Byzantine Empire, if there was one at all. The growth of the study of "late antiquity" has led to some historians setting a start date in the seventh or eighth centuries. Others believe a "new empire" began during changes in c.  300   AD. Still others hold that these starting points are too early or too late, and instead begin c.  500 . Geoffrey Greatrex believes that it

4950-458: Is similar or identical to earlier tables games that have been depicted for centuries in art, leading to the mistaken belief that backgammon itself is much older. The history of board games can be traced back nearly 5,000 years to archaeological discoveries of the Jiroft culture , located in present-day Iran , the world's oldest game set having been discovered in the region with equipment comprising

5100-406: Is the following: White doubles Black to 2 points, Black accepts then beavers the cube to 4 points; White, confident of a win, raccoons the cube to 8 points, while Black retains the cube. Such a move adds greatly to the risk of having to face the doubling cube coming back at 8 times its original value when first doubling the opponent (offered at 2 points, counter offered at 16 points) should the luck of

5250-689: Is the national authority and runs a backgammon championship   —   the Backgammon Galaxy UK Open Tournament   —   as well as club championships, online leagues and knockout tournaments. Like the USBGF they are active members of the World Backgammon Federation (WBF) and their tournament rules have been adopted in their entirety by the WBF. Backgammon entered the computer era in

5400-402: Is unable to be moved, but such a move is made possible by the moving of the other die, that move is compulsory. In the course of a move, a checker may land on any point that is unoccupied or is occupied by one or more of the player's own checkers. It may also land on a point occupied by exactly one opposing checker, or " blot ". In this case, the blot has been "hit" and is placed in the middle of

5550-715: The Tactica , a military treatise; and the Book of the Eparch , which codified Constantinople's trading regulations. In non-literary contexts Leo was less successful: the empire lost in Sicily and against the Bulgarians , while he provoked theological scandal by marrying four times in an attempt to father a legitimate heir. The early reign of that heir, Constantine VII , was tumultuous, as his mother Zoe , his uncle Alexander ,

5700-536: The Catalan Company ravaging the countryside and increasing resentment towards Constantinople. The situation became worse for Byzantium during the civil wars after Andronikos III died. A six-year-long civil war devastated the empire, allowing the Serbian ruler Stefan Dušan to overrun most of the empire's remaining territory and establish a Serbian Empire . In 1354, an earthquake at Gallipoli devastated

5850-706: The Council of Clermont and urged all those present to take up arms under the sign of the Cross and launch an armed pilgrimage to recover Jerusalem and the East from the Muslims. The response in Western Europe was overwhelming. Alexios was able to recover a number of important cities, islands and much of western Asia Minor. The Crusaders agreed to become Alexios' vassals under the Treaty of Devol in 1108, which marked

6000-633: The Council of Piacenza in 1095, envoys from Alexios spoke to Pope Urban II about the suffering of the Christians of the East and underscored that without help from the West, they would continue to suffer under Muslim rule. Urban saw Alexios' request as a dual opportunity to cement Western Europe and reunite the Eastern Orthodox Church with the Roman Catholic Church under his rule. On 27 November 1095, Urban called

6150-475: The Danube , he pushed his troops too far in 602—they mutinied, proclaimed an officer named Phocas as emperor, and executed Maurice. The Sasanians seized their moment and reopened hostilities ; Phocas was unable to cope and soon faced a major rebellion led by Heraclius . Phocas lost Constantinople in 610 and was soon executed, but the destructive civil war accelerated the empire's decline. Under Khosrow II ,

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6300-750: The Danube . In the north and west were the Balkans, the corridors between the mountain ranges of Pindos , the Dinaric Alps , the Rhodopes and the Balkans . In the south and east were Anatolia, the Pontic Mountains and the Taurus - Anti-Taurus range, which served as passages for armies, while the Caucasus mountains lay between the Empire and its eastern neighbours. Roman roads connected

6450-636: The Empire of Trebizond , was created after Alexios I of Trebizond , commanding the Georgian expedition in Chaldia a few weeks before the sack of Constantinople, found himself de facto emperor and established himself in Trebizond. Of the three successor states, Epirus and Nicaea stood the best chance of reclaiming Constantinople. The Nicaean Empire struggled to survive the next few decades, however, and by

6600-641: The Komnenian restoration , and Constantinople would remain the largest and wealthiest city in Europe until the 13th century. The empire was largely dismantled in 1204, following the Sack of Constantinople by Latin armies at the end of the Fourth Crusade ; its former territories were then divided into competing Greek rump states and Latin realms . Despite the eventual recovery of Constantinople in 1261,

6750-689: The Normans who arrived in Italy at the beginning of the 11th century. During a period of strife between Constantinople and Rome culminating in the East-West Schism of 1054 , the Normans advanced gradually into Byzantine Italy . Reggio , the capital of the tagma of Calabria, was captured in 1060 by Robert Guiscard , followed by Otranto in 1068. Bari , the main Byzantine stronghold in Apulia ,

6900-581: The Pechenegs , who were caught by surprise and annihilated at the Battle of Levounion on 28 April 1091. Having achieved stability in the West, Alexios could turn his attention to the severe economic difficulties and the disintegration of the empire's traditional defences. However, he still did not have enough manpower to recover the lost territories in Asia Minor and to the advance by the Seljuks. At

7050-586: The Playboy Mansion . Backgammon clubs were formed and tournaments were held, resulting in a World Championship promoted in Las Vegas in 1967. In the second half of the 20th century, new terms were introduced in America, such as 'beaver' and 'checkers' for men (although American backgammon experts Jacoby and Crawford continued to use both the older terms as well as the new ones). Most recently,

7200-633: The Renaissance . The fall of Constantinople is sometimes used to mark the dividing line between the Middle Ages and the early modern period . The inhabitants of the empire, now generally termed Byzantines, thought of themselves as Romans ( Romaioi ). Their Islamic neighbours similarly called their empire the "land of the Romans" ( Bilād al-Rūm ), but the people of medieval Western Europe preferred to call them "Greeks" ( Graeci ), due to having

7350-458: The Roman papacy . In 780, Empress Irene assumed power on behalf of her son Constantine VI . Although she was a capable administrator who temporarily resolved the iconoclasm controversy, the empire was destabilized by her feud with her son. The Bulgars and Abbasids meanwhile inflicted numerous defeats on the Byzantine armies, and the papacy crowned Charlemagne as Roman emperor in 800. In 802,

7500-606: The expected value -driven game played in the 20th and 21st centuries. The popularity of backgammon surged in the mid-1960s, in part due to the charisma of Prince Alexis Obolensky who became known as "The Father of Modern Backgammon". "Obe", as he was called by friends, co-founded the International Backgammon Association, which published a set of official rules. He also established the World Backgammon Club of Manhattan, devised

7650-575: The fall of the West in the 5th century AD, and continued to exist until the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire in 1453. During most of its existence, the empire remained the most powerful economic, cultural, and military force in the Mediterranean world . The term "Byzantine Empire" was only coined following the empire's demise; its citizens referred to the polity as the "Roman Empire" and to themselves as "Romans". Due to

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7800-513: The sea walls of Constantinople , overhaul provincial governance, and wage inconclusive campaigns against the Abbasids. After his death, his empress Theodora , ruling on behalf of her son Michael III , permanently extinguished the iconoclastic movement; the empire prospered under their sometimes-fraught rule. However, Michael was posthumously vilified by historians loyal to the dynasty of his successor Basil I , who assassinated him in 867 and who

7950-487: The 10th to 7th centuries BC have been found throughout modern day Iraq, Syria, Egypt and western Iran. The Persian tables game of nard or nardšir emerged somewhere between the 3rd and 6th century AD, one text ( Kār-nāmag ī Ardaxšēr ī Pāpakān ) linking it with Ardashir I (r. 224–41), founder of the Sasanian dynasty , whereas another ( Wičārišn ī čatrang ud nihišn ī nēw-ardaxšēr ) attributes it to Bozorgmehr Bokhtagan ,

8100-554: The 17th century. In medieval Italy, Barail was played on a backgammon board, with the important difference that both players moved their pieces counter-clockwise and starting from the same side of the board. The game rules for Barail are recorded in a 13th-century manuscript held in the Italian National Library in Florence. The earliest mention of backgammon, under the name Baggammon , was by James Howell in

8250-669: The 1990s when software was developed to play and analyze games, and for people to play one another over the internet. Real-time online play began with the First Internet Backgammon Server in July 1992, but there are now a range of options. Since 2018, backgammon has been overseen internationally by the World Backgammon Federation who set the rules of play for international tournaments. Backgammon playing pieces may be termed men, checkers, draughts, stones, counters, pawns, discs, pips, chips, or nips. Checkers

8400-402: The 24-point towards the 1-point. Points 1 through 6 are called the home board or inner board, and points 7 through 12 are called the outer board. The 7-point is referred to as the bar point, and the 13-point as the midpoint. The 5-point for each player is sometimes called the "golden point". To start the game, each player rolls one die, and the player with the higher number moves first using

8550-429: The 5-point using the die roll of 6; this is sometimes useful tactically. As before, if there is a way to use all moves showing on the dice by moving checkers within the home board or by bearing them off, the player must do so. If a player's checker is hit while in the process of bearing off, that player may not bear off any others until it has been re-entered into the game and moved into the player's home board, according to

8700-641: The 532 Nika revolt he rebuilt much of Constantinople, including the original Hagia Sophia . Justinian took advantage of political instability in Italy to attempt the reconquest of lost western territories. The Vandal Kingdom in North Africa was subjugated in 534 by the general Belisarius , who then invaded Italy ; the Ostrogothic Kingdom was destroyed in 554. In the 540s, however, Justinian began to suffer reversals on multiple fronts. Taking advantage of Constantinople's preoccupation with

8850-450: The 6 and the 5 must be used to bear off the two checkers from the 5-point. When bearing off, a player may also move a lower die roll before the higher even if that means the full value of the higher die is not fully utilized. For example, if a player has exactly one checker remaining on the 6-point, and rolls a 6 and a 1, the player may move the 6-point checker one place to the 5-point with the lower die roll of 1, and then bear that checker off

9000-580: The Arab efforts to capture Constantinople in the 670s , but suffered a reversal against the Bulgars , who soon established an empire in the northern Balkans . Nevertheless, he and Constans had done enough to secure the empire's position, especially as the Umayyad Caliphate was undergoing another civil war . Justinian II sought to build on the stability secured by his father Constantine but

9150-408: The Byzantine administration's policy of heavy taxation and abolishing of the levy. The weakening of Georgia and Armenia played a significant role in the Byzantine defeat at Manzikert in 1071. Basil II is considered among the most capable Byzantine emperors and his reign as the apex of the empire in the Middle Ages . By 1025, the date of Basil II's death, the Byzantine Empire stretched from Armenia in

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9300-415: The Empire by land, with the Via Egnatia running from Constantinople to the Albanian coast through Macedonia and the Via Traiana to Adrianople (modern Edirne ), Serdica (modern Sofia ) and Singidunum. By water, Crete, Cyprus and Sicily were key naval points and the main ports connecting Constantinople were Alexandria, Gaza, Caesarea and Antioch. The Aegean sea was considered an internal lake within

9450-432: The Empire. The emperor was the centre of the whole administration of the Empire, who the legal historian Kaius Tuori has said was "above the law, within the law, and the law itself"; with a power that is difficult to define and which does not align with our modern understanding of the separation of powers. The proclamations of the crowds of Constantinople, and the inaugurations of the patriarch from 457, would legitimise

9600-412: The English clergy. Edmond Hoyle published A Short Treatise on the Game of Back-Gammon in 1753; this described rules and strategy for the game and was bound together with a similar text on whist . The early form of backgammon was very similar to its predecessor, Irish. The aim, board, number of pieces or "men", direction of play and starting layout were the same as in the modern game. However, there

9750-401: The French Toutes Tables and Spanish Todas Tablas , the latter name first being used in the 1283 El Libro de los Juegos , a translation of Arabic manuscripts by the Toledo School of Translators . Irish had been popular at the Scottish court of James IV and considered to be "the more serious and solid game" when the variant which became known as Backgammon began to emerge in the first half of

9900-411: The Mongol invasion also gave Nicaea a temporary respite from Seljuk attacks, allowing it to concentrate on the Latin Empire to its north. The Empire of Nicaea, founded by the Laskarid dynasty , managed to recapture Constantinople in 1261 and defeat Epirus . This led to a short-lived revival of Byzantine fortunes under Michael VIII Palaiologos , but the war-ravaged empire was ill-equipped to deal with

10050-405: The Normans were driven out of Greece, in 1186 the Vlachs and Bulgars began a rebellion that led to the formation of the Second Bulgarian Empire . The internal policy of the Angeloi was characterised by the squandering of the public treasure and fiscal maladministration. Imperial authority was severely weakened, and the growing power vacuum at the centre of the empire encouraged fragmentation. There

10200-401: The Sassanids occupied the Levant and Egypt and pushed into Asia Minor, while Byzantine control of Italy slipped and the Avars and Slavs ran riot in the Balkans. Although Heraclius repelled a siege of Constantinople in 626 and defeated the Sassanids in 627, this was a pyrrhic victory . The early Muslim conquests soon saw the conquest of the Levant , Egypt , and the Sassanid Empire by

10350-413: The Tetrarchy system quickly failed, the division of the empire proved an enduring concept. Constantine I ( r.  306–337 ) secured sole power in 324. Over the following six years, he rebuilt the city of Byzantium as a capital city , which was renamed Constantinople . Rome , the previous capital, was further from the important eastern provinces and in a less strategically important location; it

10500-426: The Turkish invaders at the Battle of Hyelion and Leimocheir , brought troops from the capital and was able to gather an army along the way, a sign that the Byzantine army remained strong and that the defensive program of western Asia Minor was still successful. John and Manuel pursued active military policies, and both deployed considerable resources on sieges and city defences; aggressive fortification policies were at

10650-427: The United States Backgammon Federation (USBGF) was organized in 2009 to repopularize the game in the United States. Board and committee members include many of the top players, tournament directors and writers in the worldwide backgammon community. The USBGF has recently created Standards of Ethical Practice to address issues on which tournament rules fail to touch. In its country of origin, the UK Backgammon Federation

10800-610: The West, Khosrow I of the Sasanian Empire invaded Byzantine territory and sacked Antioch in 540. Meanwhile, the emperor's internal reforms and policies began to falter, not helped by a devastating plague that killed a large proportion of the population and severely weakened the empire's social and financial stability. The most difficult period of the Ostrogothic war, against their king Totila , came during this decade, while divisions among Justinian's advisors undercut

10950-401: The West. Zeno ( r.  474–491 ) convinced the problematic Ostrogoth king Theodoric to take control of Italy from Odoacer, which he did; dying with the empire at peace, Zeno was succeeded by Anastasius I ( r.  491–518 ). Although his Monophysitism brought occasional issues, Anastasius was a capable administrator and instituted several successful financial reforms including

11100-596: The Western provinces to achieve an economic revival that continued until the close of the century. It has been argued that Byzantium under the Komnenian rule was more prosperous than at any time since the Persian invasions of the 7th century. During the 12th century, population levels rose and extensive tracts of new agricultural land were brought into production. Archaeological evidence from both Europe and Asia Minor shows

11250-522: The abolition of the chrysargyron tax . He was the first emperor to die with no serious problems affecting his empire since Diocletian. The reign of Justinian I was a watershed in Byzantine history. Following his accession in 527, the law-code was rewritten as the influential Corpus Juris Civilis and Justinian produced extensive legislation on provincial administration; he reasserted imperial control over religion and morality through purges of non-Christians and "deviants"; and having ruthlessly subdued

11400-590: The administration's response. He also did not fully heal the divisions in Chalcedonian Christianity , as the Second Council of Constantinople failed to make a real difference. Justinian died in 565; his reign saw more success than that of any other Byzantine emperor, yet he left his empire under massive strain. Financially and territorially overextended, Justin II ( r.  565–578 )

11550-568: The aristocracy turned into wholesale slaughter, while the emperor resorted to ever more ruthless measures to shore up his regime. Despite his military background, Andronikos failed to deal with Isaac Komnenos of Cyprus, Béla III of Hungary who reincorporated Croatian territories into Hungary, and Stephen Nemanja of Serbia who declared his independence from the Byzantine Empire. Yet, none of these troubles compared to William II of Sicily 's invasion force of 300 ships and 80,000 men, arriving in 1185 and sacking Thessalonica . Andronikos mobilised

11700-425: The bar. A player may not move any other checkers until all checkers belonging to that player on the bar have re-entered the board. If a player has checkers on the bar, but rolls a combination that does not allow any of those checkers to re-enter, the player does not move. If the opponent's home board is completely "closed" (i.e. all six points are each occupied by two or more checkers), there is no roll that will allow

11850-449: The better record over a series of many games. With each roll of the dice, players must choose from numerous options for moving their pieces and anticipate possible counter-moves by the opponent. The optional use of a doubling cube allows players to raise the stakes during the game. The earliest specific reference to backgammon was in a letter dated 1635, when it was emerging as a variant of the popular medieval Anglo-Scottish game of Irish ;

12000-399: The board at the beginning of the game. The roll of 1-2 is given special consideration, allowing the player, after moving the 1 and the 2, to select any desired doubles move. A player also receives an extra turn after a roll of 1-2 or of doubles. Hypergammon is a game in which players have only three counters on the board, starting with one each on the 24, 23 and 22 points. With the aid of

12150-468: The board on the bar that divides the two sides of the playing surface. A checker may never land on a point occupied by two or more opposing checkers; thus, no point is ever occupied by checkers from both players simultaneously. There is no limit to the number of checkers that can occupy a point or the bar at any given time. Checkers placed on the bar must re-enter the game through the opponent's home board before any other move can be made. A roll of 1 allows

12300-461: The board. Modern backgammon follows the same rules as tabula for hitting a blot and for bearing off; and the rules for re-entering pieces in backgammon are the same as those for initially entering pieces in tabula. The name Tavli ( τάβλι ) is still used in Greece for various tables games, which are frequently played in town plateias and cafes. The τάβλι of Emperor Zeno's time is believed to be

12450-495: The capital, and Alexios Angelos was elevated to the throne as Alexios IV along with his blind father Isaac. Alexios IV and Isaac II were unable to keep their promises and were deposed by Alexios V . The crusaders again took the city on 13 April 1204 , and Constantinople was subjected to pillage and massacre by the rank and file for three days. Many priceless icons, relics and other objects later turned up in Western Europe ,

12600-405: The checker to enter on the 24-point (opponent's 1), a roll of 2 on the 23-point (opponent's 2), and so forth, up to a roll of 6 allowing entry on the 19-point (opponent's 6). Checkers may not enter on a point occupied by two or more opposing checkers. Checkers can enter on unoccupied points, or on points occupied by a single opposing checker; in the latter case, the single checker is hit and placed on

12750-469: The city had collapsed so severely that it was now little more than a cluster of villages separated by fields. On 2 April 1453, Sultan Mehmed 's army of 80,000 men and large numbers of irregulars laid siege to the city. Despite a desperate last-ditch defence of the city by the massively outnumbered Christian forces (c. 7,000 men, 2,000 of whom were foreign), Constantinople finally fell to the Ottomans after

12900-603: The crusade was to conquer Egypt , the centre of Muslim power in the Levant. The Crusader army arrived at Venice in the summer of 1202 and hired the Venetian fleet to transport them to Egypt. As a payment to the Venetians, they captured the (Christian) port of Zara in Dalmatia , which was a vassal city of Venice, it had rebelled and placed itself under Hungary's protection in 1186. Shortly afterward, Alexios IV Angelos , son of

13050-408: The cube has already been offered and accepted. This encourages a player with a large lead to double, possibly ending the game, rather than to play it to conclusion hoping for a gammon or backgammon. The Jacoby rule is widely used in money play but is not used in match play. The "Crawford rule", named after John R. Crawford , is designed to make match play more equitable for the player in the lead. If

13200-400: The cube, doubling the value of the game again, while retaining possession of the cube. A variant of the doubling cube "beaver" is the "raccoon". Players who doubled their opponent, seeing the opponent beaver the cube, may in turn then double the stakes once again ("raccoon") as part of that cube phase before any dice are rolled. The opponent retains the doubling cube. An example of a "raccoon"

13350-504: The deposed and blinded Emperor Isaac II, made contact with the Crusaders. Alexios offered to reunite the Byzantine church with Rome, pay the Crusaders 200,000 silver marks, join the crusade, and provide all the supplies they needed to reach Egypt. The crusaders arrived at Constantinople in the summer of 1203 and quickly attacked , starting a major fire that damaged large parts of the city, and briefly seized control. Alexios III fled from

13500-417: The dice change. Some players may opt to invoke the "Murphy rule" or the "automatic double rule". If both opponents roll the same opening number, the doubling cube is incremented on each occasion yet remains in the middle of the board, available to either player. The Murphy rule may be invoked with a maximum number of automatic doubles allowed and that limit is agreed to prior to a game or match commencing. When

13650-416: The doubled stakes or resign ("drop") the game immediately. Whenever a player accepts doubled stakes, the cube is placed on their side of the board with the corresponding power of two facing upward, to indicate that the right to redouble, which is to offer to continue doubling the stakes, belongs exclusively to that player. If the opponent drops the doubled stakes, they lose the game at the current value of

13800-437: The doubling cube. For instance, if the cube showed the number 2 and a player wanted to redouble the stakes to put it at 4, the opponent choosing to drop the redouble would lose two, or twice the original stake. There is no limit on the number of redoubles. Although 64 is the highest number depicted on the doubling cube, the stakes may rise to 128, 256, and so on. In money games, a player is often permitted to "beaver" when offered

13950-475: The east by allowing the Goths to settle in Roman territory; he also twice intervened in the western half, defeating the usurpers Magnus Maximus and Eugenius in 388 and 394 respectively. He actively condemned paganism , confirmed the primacy of Nicene Christianity over Arianism , and established Christianity as the Roman state religion . He was the last emperor to rule both the western and eastern halves of

14100-433: The east to Calabria in southern Italy in the west. Many successes had been achieved, ranging from the conquest of Bulgaria to the annexation of parts of Georgia and Armenia, and the reconquests of Crete , Cyprus , and the important city of Antioch . These were not temporary tactical gains but long-term reconquests. At the same time, Byzantium was faced with new enemies. Its provinces in southern Italy were threatened by

14250-537: The emperor's role as the leader of the Christian world, John marched into the Holy Land at the head of the combined forces of the empire and the Crusader states; yet despite his efforts in leading the campaign, his hopes were disappointed by the treachery of his Crusader allies. In 1142, John returned to press his claims to Antioch, but he died in the spring of 1143 following a hunting accident. John's chosen heir

14400-533: The empire's eastern defences. The emergency lent weight to the military aristocracy in Anatolia, who in 1068 secured the election of one of their own, Romanos Diogenes , as emperor. In the summer of 1071, Romanos undertook a massive eastern campaign to draw the Seljuks into a general engagement with the Byzantine army. At the Battle of Manzikert , Romanos suffered a surprise defeat against Sultan Alp Arslan and

14550-496: The empire's fall, early modern scholars referred to the empire by many names, including the "Empire of Constantinople", the "Empire of the Greeks", the "Eastern Empire", the "Late Empire", the "Low Empire", and the "Roman Empire". The increasing use of "Byzantine" and "Byzantine Empire" likely started with the 15th-century historian Laonikos Chalkokondyles , whose works were widely propagated, including by Hieronymus Wolf . "Byzantine"

14700-552: The empire, gaining only short-term success. To avoid another sacking of the capital by the Latins, he forced the Church to submit to Rome, again a temporary solution for which the peasantry hated Michael and Constantinople. The efforts of Andronikos II and later his grandson Andronikos III marked Byzantium's last genuine attempts to restoring the glory of the empire. However, the use of mercenaries by Andronikos II often backfired, with

14850-468: The empire; after his death, the West would be destabilised by a succession of "soldier-emperors", unlike the East, where administrators would continue to hold power. Theodosius II ( r.  408–450 ) largely left the rule of the east to officials such as Anthemius , who constructed the Theodosian Walls to defend Constantinople, now firmly entrenched as Rome's capital. Theodosius' reign

15000-522: The end of the Norman threat during Alexios' reign. Alexios's son John II Komnenos succeeded him in 1118 and ruled until 1143. John was a pious and dedicated emperor who was determined to undo the damage to the empire suffered at the Battle of Manzikert half a century earlier. Famed for his piety and his remarkably mild and just reign, John was an exceptional example of a moral ruler at a time when cruelty

15150-620: The enemies that surrounded it. To maintain his campaigns against the Latins, Michael pulled troops from Asia Minor and levied crippling taxes on the peasantry, causing much resentment. Massive construction projects were completed in Constantinople to repair the damage of the Fourth Crusade, but none of these initiatives were of any comfort to the farmers in Asia Minor suffering raids from Muslim ghazis. Rather than holding on to his possessions in Asia Minor, Michael chose to expand

15300-472: The fall of the west during the reign of Justinian I ( r. 527–565 ), who briefly reconquered much of Italy and the western Mediterranean coast . The appearance of plague and a devastating war with Persia exhausted the empire's resources; the early Muslim conquests that followed saw the loss of the empire's richest provinces— Egypt and Syria —to the Rashidun Caliphate . In 698, Africa

15450-415: The fifteen pieces around the board and be first to bear off , i.e., remove them from the board. The achievement of this while the opponent is still a long way behind results in a triple win known as a backgammon , hence the name of the game. Backgammon involves a combination of strategy and luck from rolling dice. While the dice may determine the outcome of a single game, the better player will accumulate

15600-480: The following game, called the "Crawford game". After the Crawford game, normal use of the doubling cube resumes. The Crawford rule is routinely used in tournament match play. It is possible for a Crawford game to never occur in a match. If the Crawford rule is in effect, then another option is the "Holland rule", named after Tim Holland , which stipulates that after the Crawford game, a player cannot double until after at least two rolls have been played by each side. It

15750-584: The former Byzantine possessions. Although Venice was more interested in commerce than conquering territory, it took key areas of Constantinople, and the Doge took the title of " Lord of a Quarter and Half a Quarter of the Roman Empire ". After the sack of Constantinople in 1204 by Latin crusaders, two Byzantine successor states were established: the Empire of Nicaea and the Despotate of Epirus . A third,

15900-554: The fort, allowing the Ottomans (who were hired as mercenaries during the civil war by John VI Kantakouzenos ) to establish themselves in Europe. By the time the Byzantine civil wars had ended, the Ottomans had defeated the Serbians and subjugated them as vassals. Following the Battle of Kosovo , much of the Balkans became dominated by the Ottomans. Constantinople by this stage was underpopulated and dilapidated. The population of

16050-409: The game. These other tables games commonly have a different starting position, restrict certain moves, or assign special value to certain dice rolls, but in some geographic games even the rules and direction of movement of the counters change, rendering them fundamentally different. Acey-deucey is a relative of backgammon in which players start with no counters on the board, and must enter them onto

16200-550: The gameplay of Ludus duodecim scriptorum has survived; it may have been related to the older Ancient Greek dice game Kubeia . The earliest known mention of the game is in Ovid 's Ars Amatoria ('The Art of Love'), written between 1 BC and 8 AD. In Roman times, this game was also known as alea . Tables games first appeared in France during the 11th century and became a favourite pastime of gamblers. In 1254, Louis IX issued

16350-431: The heart of their imperial military policies. Despite the defeat at Myriokephalon, the policies of Alexios, John and Manuel resulted in vast territorial gains, increased frontier stability in Asia Minor, and secured the stabilisation of the empire's European frontiers. From c.  1081 to c.  1180 , the Komnenian army assured the empire's security, enabling Byzantine civilisation to flourish. This allowed

16500-460: The imperial seat's move from Rome to Byzantium , the adoption of state Christianity , and the predominance of Greek instead of Latin , modern historians continue to make a distinction between the earlier Roman Empire and the later Byzantine Empire . During the earlier Pax Romana period, the western parts of the empire became increasingly Latinised , while the eastern parts largely retained their preexisting Hellenistic culture . This created

16650-726: The later part of his reign, John focused his activities on the East, personally leading numerous campaigns against the Turks in Asia Minor. His campaigns fundamentally altered the balance of power in the East, forcing the Turks onto the defensive, while retaking many towns, fortresses, and cities across the peninsula for the Byzantines. He defeated the Danishmend Emirate of Melitene and reconquered all of Cilicia , while forcing Raymond of Poitiers , Prince of Antioch, to recognise Byzantine suzerainty. In an effort to demonstrate

16800-456: The latter was described as a better game. By the 19th century, however, backgammon had spread to Europe, where it rapidly superseded other tables games like Trictrac in popularity, and also to America, where the doubling cube was introduced. In other parts of the world, different tables games such as Nard or Nardy are better known. Backgammon is a recent member of the large family of tables games that date back to ancient times. Its equipment

16950-418: The measures he took to reform the government of the empire have been praised by historians. According to the historian George Ostrogorsky , Andronikos was determined to root out corruption: under his rule, the sale of offices ceased; selection was based on merit, rather than favouritism; and officials were paid an adequate salary to reduce the temptation of bribery. In the provinces, Andronikos's reforms produced

17100-592: The mid-13th century it had lost much of southern Anatolia. The weakening of the Sultanate of Rûm following the Mongol invasion in 1242–1243 allowed many beyliks and ghazis to set up their own principalities in Anatolia, weakening the Byzantine hold on Asia Minor. Two centuries later, one of the Beys of these beyliks, Osman I , would establish the Ottoman Empire that would eventually conquer Constantinople. However,

17250-546: The most capable Byzantine emperors, withstood continued Arab attacks, civil unrest, and natural disasters, and reestablished the state as a major regional power. Leo's reign produced the Ecloga , a new code of law to succeed that of Justinian II, and continued to reform the "theme system" in order to lead offensive campaigns against the Muslims, culminating in a decisive victory in 740 . Constantine overcame an early civil war against his brother-in-law Artabasdos , made peace with

17400-586: The new Abbasid Caliphate , campaigned successfully against the Bulgars, and continued to make administrative and military reforms. However, due to both emperors' support for the Byzantine Iconoclasm , which opposed the use of religious icons , they were later vilified by Byzantine historians; Constantine's reign also saw the loss of Ravenna to the Lombards , and the beginning of a split with

17550-466: The newly-formed Arabic Rashidun Caliphate . By Heraclius' death in 641, the empire had been severely reduced economically as well as territorially—the loss of the wealthy eastern provinces had deprived Constantinople of three-quarters of its revenue. The next seventy-five years are poorly documented. Arab raids into Asia Minor began almost immediately, and the Byzantines resorted to holding fortified centres and avoiding battle at all costs; although it

17700-411: The normal movement rules. The first player to bear off all fifteen of their own checkers wins the game. When keeping score in backgammon, the points awarded depend on the scale of the victory. A player who bears off all fifteen pieces when the opponent has borne off at least one, wins a single game worth 1 point. If all fifteen have been borne off before the opponent gets at least one checker off, this

17850-421: The numbers 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, and 64 inscribed on its sides to denote the current stake. At the start of each game, the doubling cube is placed on the midpoint of the bar with the number 64 showing; the cube is then said to be "centered, on 1". When the cube is still centered, either player may start their turn by proposing that the game be played for twice the current stakes. Their opponent must either accept ("take")

18000-423: The numbers shown on both dice. If the players roll the same number, they must roll again until they roll different numbers. Both dice must land completely flat on the right-hand side of the gameboard. The players then take alternate turns, rolling two dice at the beginning of each turn. After rolling the dice, players must, if possible, move their pieces according to the number shown on each die. For example, if

18150-569: The outset of his reign, Alexios faced a formidable attack from the Normans under Guiscard and his son Bohemund of Taranto , who captured Dyrrhachium and Corfu and laid siege to Larissa in Thessaly . Guiscard's death in 1085 temporarily eased the Norman problem. The following year, the Seljuq sultan died, and the sultanate was split due to internal rivalries. By his own efforts, Alexios defeated

18300-521: The patriarch Nicholas , the powerful Simeon I of Bulgaria , and other influential figures jockeyed for power. In 920, the admiral Romanos I used his fleet to secure power, crowning himself and demoting Constantine to the position of junior co-emperor. His reign, which brought peace with Bulgaria and successes in the east under the general John Kourkouas , was ended in 944 by the machinations of his sons, whom Constantine soon usurped in turn. Constantine's ineffectual sole rule has often been construed as

18450-476: The phrase "playing at tables" was used in a similar way to "playing at cards". The first known rules of "Back Gammon" were produced by Francis Willughby around 1672; they were quickly followed by Charles Cotton in 1674. In the 16th century, Elizabethan laws and church regulations had prohibited "playing at tables" in England, but by the 18th century, Backgammon had superseded Irish and become popular among

18600-405: The player rolls a 6 and a 3 (denoted as "6-3"), the player must move one checker six points forward, and another or the same checker three points forward. The same checker may be moved twice, as long as the two moves can be made separately and legally: six and then three, or three and then six. If a player rolls two of the same number, called doubles, that player must play each die twice. For example,

18750-410: The pope and Western Christian kingdoms, and he successfully handled the passage of the crusaders through his empire. In the East, Manuel suffered a major defeat in 1176 at the Battle of Myriokephalon against the Turks. These losses were quickly recovered, and in the following year Manuel's forces inflicted a defeat upon a force of "picked Turks". The Byzantine commander John Vatatzes , who destroyed

18900-605: The ports of southern Italy, he sent an expedition to Italy in 1155, but disputes within the coalition led to the eventual failure of the campaign. Despite this military setback, Manuel's armies successfully invaded the southern parts of the Kingdom of Hungary in 1167, defeating the Hungarians at the Battle of Sirmium . By 1168, nearly the whole of the eastern Adriatic coast lay in Manuel's hands. Manuel made several alliances with

19050-441: The reconstituted empire would wield only regional power during its final two centuries of existence. Its remaining territories were progressively annexed by the Ottomans in perennial wars fought throughout the 14th and 15th centuries. The fall of Constantinople to the Ottomans in 1453 ultimately brought the empire to an end. Many refugees who had fled the city after its capture settled in Italy and throughout Europe, helping to ignite

19200-498: The rules of play had changed to those used today. Tables boards were now made with a 'bar' in the centre and men that were hit went onto the bar. Winning double or by "two hits" was achieved by bearing all one's men off before the other has borne any —  this was now called a gammon . If the winner bore off all men while the loser still had men in his adversary's table, it was a back-gammon and worth "three hits", i.e., triple. The most recent major development in backgammon

19350-548: The throne. Alexios was highly incompetent in the office, and with his mother Maria of Antioch 's Frankish background, his regency was unpopular. Eventually, Andronikos I Komnenos , a grandson of Alexios I, overthrew Alexios II in a violent coup d'état . After eliminating his potential rivals, he had himself crowned as co-emperor in September 1183. He eliminated Alexios II and took his 12-year-old wife Agnes of France for himself. Andronikos began his reign well; in particular,

19500-442: The unpopular Irene was overthrown by Nikephoros I ; he reformed the empire's administration but died in battle against the Bulgars in 811. Military defeats and societal disorder, especially the resurgence of iconoclasm, characterised the next eighteen years. Stability was somewhat restored during the reign of Theophilos ( r.  829–842 ), who exploited economic growth to complete construction programs, including rebuilding

19650-551: The vizier of Khosrow I (r. 531–79), who is credited with the invention of the game. The earliest identifiable tables game, Tabula , meaning 'table' or 'board', is described in an epigram of Byzantine Emperor Zeno (AD 476–491). The overall aim was to be first to bear one's pieces off; the board had the typical tables layout, with 24 points, 12 on each side; and there were 15 counters per player. However, unlike modern Western backgammon, there were three cubical dice not two, no bar nor doubling die , and all counters started off

19800-463: The west, the warlord Odoacer deposed Romulus Augustulus in 476, killed his titular successor Julius Nepos in 480, and the office of western emperor was formally abolished. Through a combination of luck, cultural factors, and political decisions, the Eastern empire never suffered from rebellious barbarian vassals and was never ruled by barbarian warlords—the problems which ensured the downfall of

19950-539: The wreck of the Vasa among the belongings of the ship's officers. Tables games appear widely in paintings of this period, mainly those of Dutch and German painters, such as Van Ostade , Jan Steen , Hieronymus Bosch , and Bruegel . Among surviving artworks are Cardsharps by Caravaggio . Backgammon's immediate predecessor was the 16th century tables game of Irish . Irish was the Anglo-Scottish equivalent of

20100-422: The zenith of Byzantine learning , but while several works were compiled, they were largely intended to legitimise and glorify the emperor's Macedonian dynasty . His son and successor died young; under two soldier-emperors, Nikephoros II ( r.  963–969 ) and John I Tzimiskes ( r.  969–976 ), the Roman army claimed numerous military successes, including the conquest of Cilicia and Antioch , and

20250-604: Was besieged in August 1068 and fell in April 1071 . About 1053, Constantine IX disbanded what the historian John Skylitzes calls the "Iberian Army", which consisted of 50,000 men, and it was turned into a contemporary Drungary of the Watch . Two other knowledgeable contemporaries, the former officials Michael Attaleiates and Kekaumenos , agree with Skylitzes that by demobilising these soldiers, Constantine did catastrophic harm to

20400-560: Was captured. Alp Arslan treated him with respect and imposed no harsh terms on the Byzantines. In Constantinople a coup put in power Michael Doukas , who soon faced the opposition of Nikephoros Bryennios and Nikephoros III Botaneiates . By 1081, the Seljuks had expanded their rule over virtually the entire Anatolian plateau from Armenia in the east to Bithynia in the west, and had established their capital at Nicaea , just 90 kilometres (56 miles) from Constantinople. The Komnenian dynasty attained full power under Alexios I in 1081. From

20550-520: Was common in tournament play in the 1980s, but is now rarely used. Minor variations to the standard game are common among casual players in certain regions. For instance, only allowing a maximum of five men on any point (Britain) or disallowing "hit-and-run" in the home board (Middle East). There are also many relatives of backgammon within the tables family with different aims, modes of play and strategies. Some are played primarily throughout one geographic region, and others add new tactical elements to

20700-561: Was given credit for his predecessor's achievements. Basil I ( r.  867–886 ) continued Michael's policies. His armies campaigned with mixed results in Italy but defeated the Paulicians of Tephrike . His successor Leo VI ( r.  886–912 ) compiled and propagated a huge number of written works. These included the Basilika , a Greek translation of Justinian I's law-code which included over 100 new laws of Leo's devising;

20850-581: Was his fourth son, Manuel I Komnenos , who campaigned aggressively against his neighbours both in the west and east. In Palestine, Manuel allied with the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem and sent a large fleet to participate in a combined invasion of Fatimid Egypt . Manuel reinforced his position as overlord of the Crusader states, with his hegemony over Antioch and Jerusalem secured by agreement with Raynald , Prince of Antioch, and Amalric of Jerusalem . In an effort to restore Byzantine control over

21000-546: Was invaded annually, Anatolia avoided permanent Arab occupation. The outbreak of the First Fitna in 656 gave Byzantium breathing space, which it used wisely: some order was restored in the Balkans by Constans II ( r.  641–668 ), who began the administrative reorganisation known as the " theme system ", in which troops were allocated to defend specific provinces. With the help of the recently rediscovered Greek fire , Constantine IV ( r.  668–685 ) repelled

21150-623: Was lost to the Umayyad Caliphate , but the empire subsequently stabilised under the Isaurian dynasty. The empire was able to expand once more under the Macedonian dynasty , experiencing a two-century-long renaissance . This came to an end in 1071, with the defeat by the Seljuk Turks at the Battle of Manzikert . Thereafter, periods of civil war and Seljuk incursion resulted in the loss of most of Asia Minor . The empire recovered during

21300-564: Was marked by the theological dispute over Nestorianism , which was eventually deemed heretical , and by the formulation of the Codex Theodosianus law code. It also saw the arrival of Attila 's Huns , who ravaged the Balkans and exacted a massive tribute from the empire; Attila however switched his attention to the rapidly-deteriorating western empire , and his people fractured after his death in 453. After Leo I ( r.  457–474 ) failed in his 468 attempt to reconquer

21450-447: Was no doubling die, there was no bar on the board or the bar was not used (men simply being moved off the table when hit) and the scoring was different. The game was won double if either the winning throw was a doublet or the opponent still had men outside the home board. It was won triple if a player bore all men off before any of the opponent's men reached the home board; this was a back-gammon . Some terminology, such as "point", "hitting

21600-406: Was not esteemed by the "soldier-emperors" who ruled from the frontiers or by the empire's population who, having been granted citizenship , considered themselves "Roman". Constantine extensively reformed the empire's military and civil administration and instituted the gold solidus as a stable currency. He favoured Christianity , which he had converted to in 312. Constantine's dynasty fought

21750-506: Was occupied by conflicts against two prominent generals, Bardas Skleros and Bardas Phokas , which ended in 989 with the former's death and the latter's submission. Between 1021 and 1022, following years of tensions, Basil II led a series of victorious campaigns against the Kingdom of Georgia , resulting in the annexation of several Georgian provinces to the empire. Basil's successors also annexed Bagratid Armenia in 1045. Importantly, both Georgia and Armenia were significantly weakened by

21900-494: Was overthrown in 695 after attempting to exact too much from his subjects; over the next twenty-two years, six more rebellions followed in an era of political instability . The reconstituted caliphate sought to break Byzantium by taking Constantinople, but the newly crowned Leo III managed to repel the 717–718 siege , the first major setback of the Muslim conquests. Leo and his son Constantine V ( r.  741–775 ), two of

22050-519: Was soon at war on many fronts. The Lombards , fearing the aggressive Avars , conquered much of northern Italy by 572. The Sasanian wars restarted that year, and continued until the emperor Maurice finally emerged victorious in 591; by that time, the Avars and Slavs had repeatedly invaded the Balkans , causing great instability. Maurice campaigned extensively in the region during the 590s, but although he managed to re-establish Byzantine control up to

22200-580: Was the addition of the doubling cube. Doubles had originally been recorded by placing "common parlour matches" on the bar in the centre of the board. A doubling cube was first introduced in the 1920s in New York City among members of gaming clubs in the Lower East Side . The cube required players not only to select the best move in a given position, but also to estimate the probability of winning from that position, transforming backgammon into

22350-766: Was the norm. For this reason, he has been called the Byzantine Marcus Aurelius . During his twenty-five-year reign, John made alliances with the Holy Roman Empire in the West and decisively defeated the Pechenegs at the Battle of Beroia . He thwarted Hungarian and Serbian threats during the 1120s, and in 1130 he allied himself with Lothair III , the German Emperor against the Norman King Roger II of Sicily . In

22500-415: Was used adjectivally alongside terms such as "Empire of the Greeks" until the 19th century. It is now the primary term, used to refer to all aspects of the empire; some modern historians believe that, as an originally prejudicial and inaccurate term, it should not be used. As the historiographical periodizations of " Roman history ", " late antiquity ", and "Byzantine history" significantly overlap, there

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