Five Lines comes from ancient Greece, where it was known as Pente Grammai. Around 600 BCE, the Greek poet Alkaois referred to the game in one of his poems, and clay game boards have been found dating to the same period. During the decades around 500 BCE, the Athenians wrote that Ajax and Achilles played the game during the siege of Troy. For that reason, it is sometimes called "the game of heroes". The game became very popular in Rome, where the board uses spaces instead of lines.

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