Most people talk about Roman fun and entertainment, paying particular attention to gladiator fights, libraries, theatre, etc. The above-mentioned entertainments were undoubtedly of great value to the ancient Romans, but they took place only once in a while. So how did they fill this waiting time?
Some say that for the Romans the most important activity in life was labor – work, so they didn’t have much time for themselves. This is not true. The Romans in various ways made this (sometimes very long) waiting period more enjoyable. Starting from children’s games (i.e. today) in hide and seek and ending with… playing football. This is!
The basic games, and everyday activities, of Roman society also included ball games (Latin pilus “hair”), which were very diverse, which translates into a huge number of specialized terms, including .:
- aporraksis – the winner of the game was a player who was able to bounce the ball with one hand the largest number of times among the participants of the game;
- episkyros – the game consisted of throwing the ball over the heads of the opposing team players in such a way as to force it to go back and cross the end line of the designated field of play, at the beginning of the game the ball was placed in the middle and the players being on the extreme lines of the field had to catch her as soon as possible and make a throw;
- ephetinda – consists in deceiving opponents, simulating a throw that is directed to another person;
- phaininda (harpastum being the most popular variation of the ball game) – a game in which two (or more) players try to tear the ball also by two opponents giving each other
- trigon – is a mutual bounce between three players;
- urania – a game of tossing the ball high up to make it difficult for players to catch it.
In the whole of antiquity, it was the most democratic type of game. Even the greatest antique doctor after Hippocrates – Galen called her “a happy companion of people”. Everyone practised this sport regardless of their social status. Children and adults played football, strong and weak, rich and poor, women and men, free and slaves, intellectuals and poorly educated.
From the above examples, it is clear that ball games were (as in modern times) everyday life for the Romans. It may not have been the “national sport” for the Romans today (such sport can be called gladiatorial fights), however, this indicates the ingenuity of the Romans, who many centuries before the spread of football in the world came up with such an idea.
