The game's actual origin is uncertain. In Persia and the Middle East it was known as nard. In Rome it was called the game of twelve lines. In the first century A.D., it became tabula. It was in 18th-century England that the name backgammon finally appeared.
According to an Indian legend, a sage named Qaflàn invented a game that represented a year. The board had 24 points for the hours of a day; 12 points on each half-board for the months; 30 pieces for the days of the month; 2 dice for night and day; and 7 spots for the days of the week (the total of opposing sides of a die also always equals 7).
