The game of knucklebones had been played in Greece since Classical times. It was played with a set of four astragli or knucklebones, each of which had two long and two short sides representing different values (1, 3, 4 and 6). Most commonly, each player threw the four astragli and scored according to the value of the long sides which fell uppermost - not on a simple numerical basis, but in accordance with certain combinations of numbers as in poker dice.