From its plural form, tabulae, come the names in other languages for this family of games including the Anglo-Saxon toefel, German [wurf]zabel, Greek tavli, Italian tavoli, Scandinavian tafl, Spanish tablas and, of course, English and French tables.

The reason for the plural is twofold: first, that a tables board comprises four separate quadrants which are a feature of the play; and second, that tabulae also came to refer to the individual pieces – 'tablemen' or 'men' for short – used in the various games.

Like other members of the tables family, games in this last group are often mistaken for Backgammon or assumed to be its variants, yet the direction of movement and hence play is quite different.

These artefacts include an ebony board, two dice and 60 pieces, with the playing fields represented by the coils of a serpent.

[11][12] Prior to the Persian discovery, the oldest board game sets had been found in Ur and are thought to be around 100 to 200 years later.

[24][25] Little specific text about the play of Duodecim scriptorum has survived;[28] 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.

The Raja introduces the game of chess, and Borzuya demonstrates Nard, played with dice made from ivory and teak.

[31] The book Pǔ Shuāng (譜雙) written during the Southern Song period (1127–1279) recording over ten variants.

[33] In the early Edo era, a new and fast gambling game called Chō-han appeared and sugoroku quickly dwindled.

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 extensive discussion of chess.

In 1254, Louis IX issued a decree prohibiting his court officials and subjects from playing dice games.

[37] Mediaeval tables should not be confused with Tafl, an unrelated class of board games (albeit linguistically related) played in medieval Scandinavia.

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.

The earliest known mention of Backgammon was in a letter dated 1635 and it was a variant of the popular mediaeval Anglo-Scottish game of Irish.

The scoring rules have changed over time and a doubling cube added that enables players to raise the stakes.

[47] "Obe", as he was called by friends, co-founded the International Backgammon Association,[48] which published a set of official rules.

Cigarette, liquor and car companies began to sponsor tournaments, and Hugh Hefner held backgammon parties at the Playboy Mansion.

[50] Backgammon clubs were formed and tournaments were held, resulting in a World Championship promoted in Las Vegas in 1967.

Board and committee members include many of the top players, tournament directors and writers in the worldwide backgammon community.

The USBGF has recently created a Standards of Ethical Practice to address issues which tournament rules fail to touch.

Other Greek tables games include: In Romania, tablă (meaning "board", cognate of the Latin tabula) has two variations: there is no doubling cube and a backgammon counts only as a gammon (called marț).

Bräde or svenskt brädspel ("Swedish Tables") is an elaborate version of the historical game verquere that is played in Sweden.

[66] The name Nardshir comes from the Persian nard (Wooden block) and shir (lion) referring to the two type of pieces used in play.

Today they continue to be commonly played in various forms in Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Egypt, Syria, Jordan and throughout the Arab world.

[68] H. J. R. Murray details many versions of tables games; his description of modern Persian Nard has the same layout and scheme of movement as backgammon.

People in the Iranian plateau and Caucasus region, especially in Azerbaijan, Iran, Armenia, Georgia, Uzbekistan and Russia, are very fond of playing narde.

In Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia many experienced players also play long narde, which some see as requiring deeper strategy.

It lacks a doubling cube, gammons and backgammons are counted as two points called mars and the players may not hit and run in their home boards.

It is customary to call the dice rolls their Persian number names, with local spellings: yek (1), dü (2), se (3), cehar (4), penç (5), and şeş (6).