Roman Ball Game - Harpastum

[ASCLEPIADES]

Salve, Amici!

 

 

This is a Roman mosaic is from Ostia. It presents what appears to be an infalted "pila", stitched in the fashion of modern balls. Considering that this scene represents a gym, it might be also a "paganica" or medicine ball. There are historical references of Roman boys playing ball in the streets. Cicero described one court case in which a man getting a shave was killed when a ball was kicked at the barber

Edited September 30, 2007 by ASCLEPIADES

[ASCLEPIADES]

The above image and the following text came from this link

 

"Harpastum (meaning "the small ball game") remained popular for 700-800 years and was played with a relatively smaller and harder ball, compared to follis or paganica. Harpastum was played by 5-12 players on a rectangular field marked by boundary lines and split by a center line. Each team had to keep the ball in their own half for as song as they can, while their opponents tried to steal it and get it over to their own side. An important rule of Harpastum stated that only the player with the ball could be tackled. That limitation caused the development of complex passing combinations. Players developed specific team roles and a lot of trickery and tactics were probably involved. The feet were scarcely used in the game of Harpastum, but a striking resemblance to rugby can be noted. Emperor Julius Caesar (???) (who is speculated to have played himself) used Harpastum to maintain the physical fitness of his soldiers and keep them battle ready. It is also believed that the Romans took Harpastum to the British Isles at the time of their expansion. By their arrival, less-sophisticated kicking games were already present on the British Isles. There actually are records of a Harpastum match played between the Romans and the British natives. Even although the conquerors won, Harpastum eventually faded out and it is very unlikely that it could have impacted the later development of English mob football.

Atheneaus wrote this about Harpastum:

Harpastum, which used to be called Phaininda, is the game I like most of all. Great are the exertion and fatigue attendant upon contests of ball-playing and violent twisting and turning of the neck. Hence Antiphanes, "Damn it, what a pain in the neck I've got." He describes the game thus: "He seized the ball and passed it to a team-mate while dodging another and laughing. He pushed it out of the way of another. Another fellow player he raised to his feet. All the while the crowd resounded with shouts of Out of bounds, Too far, Right beside him, Over his head, On the ground, Up in the air, Too short, Pass it back in the scrum."

 

And these quotations came from en.wikipedia:

 

"Galen, in On Exercise with the Small Ball, describes harpastum as:

"better than wrestling or running because it exercises every part of the body, takes up little time, and costs nothing." He also considered it "profitable training in strategy", and said that it could be "played with varying degrees of strenuousness."

Translation by Alexander Adam of a passage from Isidor.

"Ludere expulsim, vel pilam geminare volantem"

"When they snatched the ball from one another, and threw it aloft, without letting it fall to the ground."

[Viggen]

...so the romans invented rugby?

[Centurion-Macro]

I remember hearing about that case where the barber slit his clients throat because of a ball that was kicked at him. That always used to make me laugh when I was a kid (I was a very weird kid...).

 

~Caesar is very smart to bring games in to keep up fitness of troops instead of training routines over and over. I could just imagine everyone gang bashing the centurions in those games