The Venus Throw was the highest roll in the Ancient Roman gambling game of tali (knucklebones). The game was played with four 4-sided rectangular dice numbered I, III, IV and VI, usually made from sheep's or goat's knucklebones. In a Venus Throw, each talus landed on a different side, yielding as a score of 14. A gambler would either throw the tali from his or her hand, or from a small box, (called a fritillus). Thirty-five different throws were possible. While the Venus throw was the highest, the Vulture throw (all aces) — also known as the Dog throw — was the lowest. The Venus throw could be used to designate the master of the revels.
In gambling in general and the game of craps in particular, snake eyes is the outcome of rolling the dice in a game and getting only one pip on each die. The pair of pips resembles a pair of eyes, which is appended to the word snake because of the creature's long-standing association with treachery and betrayal. The dictionary of etymology traces use of the term as far back as 1919.[1] Ancient Roman dice games used the term dogs to describe a throw of double ones, referring to this as "the dog throw".
Because this is the lowest possible roll, and will often be a loser in many dice games, such as craps, the term has been employed in a more general usage as a reference to bad luck
Knucklebones, also known as Tali, Fivestones, or Jacks, is a game of ancient origin, usually played with five small objects, or ten in the case of jacks. Originally the "knucklebones" (actually the astragalus, a bone in the ankle, or hock[1]) were those of a sheep, which were thrown up and caught in various manners. Modern knucklebones consist of six points, or knobs, projecting from a common base, and are usually made of metal or plastic.
The winner is the first player to successfully complete a prescribed series of throws, which, though similar, differ widely in detail. The simplest throw consists in either tossing up one stone, the jack, or bouncing a ball, and picking up one or more stones or knucklebones from the table while it is in the air. This continues until all five stones or knucklebones have been picked up. Another throw consists in tossing up first one stone, then two, then three and so on, and catching them on the back of the hand. Different throws have received distinctive names, such as "riding the elephant", "peas in the pod", "horses in the stable",[2] and "frogs in the well".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knucklebones