Maps of ancient Greece and Rome from the "Atlas Universel" by Alexandre Vuillemin (1812-1880).

Greece and Rome broke new ground in organised sport, giving the world the Olympic Games and gladiatorial contests, both of which were staged before large crowds. This was the age of celebrated athletes whose fame spread throughout their communities. Ball sports were somewhat relegated to the margins in these heroic times, but there is plenty of evidence to suggest that they were very much part of everyday life.

The major ancient Greek ball games were episkyros, phaininda, aporrhaxis and ourania, while harpastum, trigon, follis, paganica and arenata are known to have been played in the Roman world. Of these, episkyros and harpastum have been recognised as team games and are therefore explored in greater detail in what follows.

HOW THE
GAME WAS
PLAYED: GREECE

“Episkyros was also called
ephebike and commonball.”

Julius Pollux

The early Victorian creators of association football considered episkyros to be a forerunner of the modern game. Among the various Greek ball games, it appears to be the most prevalent, and was a territorial team game that required players to display agility, precision and endurance in equal measure.

Although it is rather limited, the best account of the game is that offered by Greek scholar Julius Pollux. Episkyros was also referred to as ephebike and epikoinos (tellingly, the latter translates as “commonball”) and although not suitable for serious athletic competition, it was appreciated for increasing fitness and boosting camaraderie among participants.

Compared to other rather more basic sporting contests, it has been proposed that the origins of episkyros extend back much further in time, evoking much older rites concerning the protection of tribal territorial boundaries.

EPISKYROS

THE PITCH

The playing area was rectangular and divided into halves by a line of limestone gravel, known as skyros. Two further lines at either end, which were scratched into the ground, marked the edges of the pitch.

“In the middle, a line was drawn with a chip of stone, which they called a skyros.” Pollux

THE BALL

The ball was light and made from an animal’s bladder, which meant that it soon became damaged following a period of continuous play. The ball was placed on the centre line at the beginning of play.

THE PLAYERS

An episkyros match was contested between two teams of equal number, thought to be between 12 and 14. It was a game played primarily by boys and ephebes (a term used to refer to young men). The two teams began the match by lining up at either end of the pitch.

“It was usually played with opposing teams of equal number.” Pollux

GAMEPLAY

Episkyros is described as a game in which two opposing teams stood on either side of a line and threw the ball at each other.

“They set the ball on this line, and each team drew another line behind the opposition. The team which got the ball first threw it over the opposition, whose job it was to grab the ball while it was still moving and throw it back the other way. This would continue until one team had pushed the other over the backline.” Pollux

Unfortunately, Pollux leaves us no wiser as to the precise nature of the game. The use of hands was definitely permitted, but there is some uncertainty as to whether participants could use their feet. It is also unclear whether any of the players were allowed to cross the centre line, whilst we know nothing about the length of a match, the scoring system or how the game was won.

PHAININDA

Phaininda is a ball game of obscure etymology. According to Pollux, it might take its name from Phaenides, its alleged inventor, or it could be derived from the Greek verb phenakizo, which means to feint, deceive or cheat. A third theory is provided by Athenaeus, a contemporary of Pollux’s, who quotes a fragment from a treatise on Roman history written by Juba II, the King of Mauretania from 25 BC to 23 AD, who in turn reproduces a quote from a fourth-century BC Attic comic poet by the name of Antiphanes. This version credits the invention of phaininda to a gymnastics trainer named Phainestios.

Bronze head of Juba II of Mauretania.

Phaininda was a physical ball game that included tossing, dodging and scrummaging. The player holding the ball would pretend to throw it to one player, before unexpectedly launching it towards another, thereby deceiving the player who initially expected to receive it.

Antiphanes offers us a vivid description of the game: “‘Ouch! What a pain in the neck I’ve got.’ He caught the ball and laughed as he passed it to one player at the same time as he dodged another. He knocked another player out of the way, and picked one up and set him on his feet, and all the while there were screams and shouts: ‘Out of bounds!’, ‘Too far!’, ‘Past him!’, ‘Over his head!’, ‘Under!’, ‘Over!’, ‘Short!’, ‘Back in the huddle!’”

Title page of the 1657 edition of Athenaeus’s The Deipnosophists.

The Athenaeus text is incomplete and, as a result, we cannot be certain as to how exactly phaininda was played, but we do know that it involved at least three players tossing the ball in such a way as to avoid a player positioned between them. There is no mention of a centre line or goal lines, although pitch markings may have been a requirement. Similarly, we have no information about players’ positioning, i.e. whether they were scattered across the pitch, set up in front of their opposite numbers or gathered in a circle.

APORRHAXIS

Another ball game described very briefly by Pollux is aporrhaxis, which can be translated as “hitting off” or “bouncing” a ball.

Aporrhaxis was a ball game played by boys and girls, in which two players took turns to bounce the ball on the ground. In one version, the player who managed to bounce the ball for the longest was the winner. In Pollux’s words, “aporrhaxis involves bouncing the ball vigorously on the ground and dribbling it again and again with the hand. The number of bounces is counted.”

Sicilian red-figure lebes gamikos (340-320 BC) that depicts a woman playing a ball game thought to be aporrhaxis. A lebes gamikos is a form of ancient Greek pottery.

The game was considered to improve participants’ agility, but it was also imbued with some erotic and nuptial connotations. Undoubtedly, the uneven nature of ancient balls, as well as the lack of elasticity to increase the bounce, would have made the game more difficult than it might initially appear.

OURANIA

Another ball game that was played by boys and girls alike was ourania (sky ball), which comes from the Greek word for the heavens. Whilst the full rules are not well known, it involved a player bending over backwards and throwing the ball up into the sky. The other players formed a circle around the thrower, who, while launching the ball into the air, also called out a fellow player’s name. The named player then entered the circle and tried to catch the ball before it touched the ground. If successful, the ball would be thrown up again and the name of another player called out. Some scholars associate ourania with another Greek game called ephedrismos (piggyback), in which a player who failed to catch the ball was referred to as a “donkey”. The donkey was then obliged to temporarily enter into the service of the winner, who was awarded the title of “king”.

ARCHAEOLOGICAL FINDINGS

A possible depiction of ourania has been recognised on an Attic black-figure lekythos (dated to 510-500 BC) discovered in a grave at Macri Langoni, Camirus, on the island of Rhodes. The image features five short-haired, bearded, nude men preparing to play a ball game. The man on the right holds balls in his extended hands and is about to throw them high up behind his back, while the other players prepare to catch them.

Amphora in London (520 BC). © The Trustees of the British Museum

This depiction is iconographically associated with a small group of Attic black-figure vases of a similar date. The two most informative examples are an amphora located in London and a lekythos to be found in Oxford. On the amphora, which is dated to around 520 BC, a seated man is about to throw a bichrome ball to three pairs of figures who are ready to catch it. All of the players are youths except for the last (bearded) carrier. The lekythos in Oxford, dated to around 500 BC, features an identical scene, with the exception of the man throwing the ball, who is standing and leans on a staff. Given that both images show players being carried on the shoulders of others, they may represent the second stage of the ourania game, in which players are given the roles of king and donkey.

Attic black-figure lekythos in Oxford (500 BC) that depicts a game thought to be ourania.

WRITTEN SOURCE

In a poem entitled the Argonautica, Apollonius of Rhodes, who served as a Greek scholar at the Library of Alexandria in the first half of the third century AD, describes a game played by the Nereids that would appear to be similar to ourania.

“While the Nereids – just as girls on some sandy secluded beach, kilting their skirts up, tucking them into their waistbands, will play with a nice round ball, each one of them in turn catching it from another, and passing it on again with a high toss in mid-air, so it never hits the ground.”
Apollonius of Rhodes, the Argonautica, Book 4, lines 948-952

THE BALLS USED
IN ANCIENT EUROPE

As is the case today, balls came in different sizes and were made from a variety of materials, with each one suited to the game in which it was used. Among the range of balls, three have been identified as being the most common.

Ancient Egyptian balls made from reed.
Hollow terracotta model of a ball (3rd century BC). This is a miniature model of an inflated leather ball that was discovered in a tomb in the South Necropolis, near the Sanctuary of the Great Gods on the island of Samothrace. It bears a striking resemblance to a modern football. ©Ephorate of Antiquities of Evros, Archaeological Museum of Samothrace

The smallest ball was hard and stuffed with hair, whilst the sphaîra or sphere was a larger ball packed with feathers. Last but not least was the thylakos or fysa, which was an empty pig’s bladder (filled with air) that was likely covered by strips of sewn leather.

“It is said first that the Earth itself,
if one could view it from above,
would appear to the eyelike one of
those balls of 12 leather pieces:
varied, and interspersed with colours.”

Plato, Phaedo, 110b-110c

Floor mosaic from the Roman baths of Porta Marina, the port of ancient Rome, in Ostia (2nd century AD). The ball in the mosaic bears a strong resemblance to the adidas Telstar. ©Klaus Heese [mosaic]

EARLY
REFERENCES

The first mention of ball games in ancient Greece was in Homeric epic poems, composed in the second half of the eighth century BC.

Bust of Homer, author of the Iliad and the Odyssey.

HOMER

The 23rd rhapsody of the Iliad, in which Homer describes the prestigious funeral games organised by Achilles to honour his dead companion, Patroclus, alludes to the official programme of the Olympic Games, which were introduced in 776 BC. Ball games do not feature in the passage, but that should come as little surprise given their absence from all Panhellenic and local competitive athletic games.

However, in Homer’s second epic poem, the Odyssey, we learn that there was already a knowledge and appreciation of ball games within contemporary society. Indeed, ball games are referenced twice in the sixth rhapsody and accompanied on both occasions by dance and song.

NAUSICAÄ

The first reference to a ball game in the Odyssey is in the famous passage in which Nausicaä, the princess of the Phaeacians, discovers the shipwrecked Odysseus while singing and playing with a ball at the seaside alongside her maidens.

“When the handmaids and Nausicaä
had eaten their fill,
they then threw off their veils and turned to playing ball,
and white-armed Nausicaä was their
leader as they sang.”

The Odyssey, Book 6, lines 99-101

Nausicaä and her companions.

Nausicaä and her companions represent icons for all female ball players who have followed in their footsteps. References to young maidens playing or juggling with small balls are also common in later Greek literature and iconography and often involve erotic and nuptial connotations. This is the first time in Greek literature that a passage refers to the word “ball”, or, as per the literal translation from Greek, a “sphere”.

Illustration of Nausicaä playing ball with her maidens before meeting Odysseus.
Plaster relief by Antonio Canova that features Halios and Laodamas dancing.

POLYBOS

The second reference to a ball game occurs a few verses later, when the Phaeacian nobility are gathered at a feast organised by King Alcinous in honour of Odysseus. During the course of the gathering, a group of young men contest a competition involving a ball specially made by Polybos.

As the two young Phaeacians Halios and Laodamas danced, they tossed to and fro a magnificent purple ball made by a very skilled artist named Polybos, in what must be the first reference to the name of a ball-maker anywhere in the world.

Sketch by Antonio Canova (1757-1822) for the plaster relief that shows Halios and Laodamas dancing.
The dance scene featuring Halios and Laodamas from the editio princeps of Homer’s Odyssey (Book 8, lines 370-380). The editio princeps was the first complete edition of Homer’s epic and was published by the humanist Demetrios Chalkokondyles in 1488. This copy was was printed in Florence that year and is held at the Bavarian State Library in Munich. ©Bayerische Staatsbibliothek

EVIDENCE OF EPISKYROS

The interior of an Attic red-figure drinking cup dated to the last decade of the sixth century BC, which is housed at the Louvre in Paris, depicts a youth who is about to throw a small ball that is grasped in his right hand. His pose clearly shows that he is not simply using the ball for exercise purposes, as he appears to be ready to forcefully launch it.

Attic red-figure drinking cup from the Louvre (circa 510-500 BC). ©RMN-Grand Palais (musée du Louvre) / Maurice et Pierre Chuzeville

A second piece of evidence is provided by a quadrangular marble base that was originally part of a funerary kouros – a sculpture of a young athlete who died prematurely. The base, dated to circa 490 BC, is decorated in relief on three of its four sides with immensely vivid scenes inspired by the athletic activities that took place at gymnasiums and palaestras. The left side of the base depicts six youths engaged in various athletic postures. Although this scene may well represent different stages of various sports, it has been strongly associated with episkyros since it was published and this interpretation remains widely accepted to this day. The scene features two groups comprising three youths apiece.

Marble base of a funerary kouros (490 BC). ©Directorate of Antiquities and Cultural Heritage Greece, National Archaeological Museum Athens

THE LEFT GROUP

Given that the left corner of the base features a player who is preparing to toss a small ball that he is holding in his right hand, we may reasonably assume that the group on the left is the attacking team. Positioned next to the thrower is a team-mate who looks over his shoulder as if he were waiting for the right moment to dash towards the centre of the pitch once the ball has been released. The third youth within the group is directly facing the opposing group and stands toe to toe with his adversary, who is part of the team lined up on the right half of the base.

Left group of players on the marble base. The player on the far left is preparing to toss a small ball. ©Directorate of Antiquities and Cultural Heritage Greece, National Archaeological Museum Athens

THE RIGHT GROUP

The most advanced athlete on the defending team is looking backwards, as if he were talking to his team-mates, perhaps to warn them of the trajectory of the ball. The other two athletes on the right side of the base raise their hands to indicate their readiness to catch the ball and throw it back to the team on the left. It could well be that the players were not permitted to cross the centre line until the ball was thrown.

Right group of players (defending team) on the marble base. ©Directorate of Antiquities and Cultural Heritage Greece, National Archaeological Museum Athens

THE TWO PLAYERS IN THE MIDDLE

The key element that helps us to identify these youths as episkyros players is the similar but opposite postures adopted by the two youths in the centre and, in particular, the manner in which their feet are placed toe to toe in the middle of the relief. Although the scarcity of evidence makes it very difficult to build a full picture of an episkyros match, this marble base may well represent a snapshot of the game. We should avoid assuming that the game involved only three players per team, as the sculptor may have chosen to illustrate just part of the scene.

The two players in the centre of the marble base. The fact that their feet are placed toe to toe indicates that these six youths are episkyros players. ©Directorate of Antiquities and Cultural Heritage Greece, National Archaeological Museum Athens

If this scene does indeed offer a faithful reflection of the ancient episkyros, it displays a strong level of affinity with modern territorial games like American football, rugby union and dodgeball. This unique marble base comprises the earliest surviving representation of an ancient team game in Greek or Roman art.

THE FIRST FOOTBALLER?

There is certainly no shortage of iconographic evidence of ancient Greek and Roman sports. However, when it comes to ball games, there is a dearth of textual sources and depictions. The most famous artefact of all is perhaps the “foot-ball player” at the National Archaeological Museum in Athens. However, to refer to him as a footballer is perhaps a little wide of the mark.

Grave stele from Zea depicting an athlete playing with a ball (4th century BC). ©Directorate of Antiquities and Cultural Heritage Greece, National Archaeological Museum Athens

The fragmentary marble grave stele was discovered in Zea, one of the ancient harbours of Piraeus, and is dated to the early fourth century BC. On the right, a naked youth is depicted in three-quarter profile. He stands on his left leg as he balances a ball on his right thigh. His arms are positioned behind his back, with his right hand clutching his left forearm, which serves to make his balancing feat all the more impressive. The young athlete appears to be completely absorbed, while his servant watches on attentively.

Grave stele from Zea. ©Directorate of Antiquities and Cultural Heritage Greece, National Archaeological Museum Athens

The ball player is depicted in a gymnasium, symbolised by the pillar that stands behind him and upon which his garments rest. This representation is unique among athletic iconography and illustrates everyday practice in the gymnasiums of ancient Greece. Judging by its relatively large size, it is likely that the ball is an inflated one, referred to as a thylakos or fysa, and a follis in Latin.

A PREVALENT
FORCE THROUGH-
OUT GREECE

Ball games flourished as athletic culture took root across all ancient Greek city states during the Archaic and Classical periods, and over the centuries, they became established in every urban Hellenistic and Roman province.

Engraving of a Greek gymnasium dating from around the first Olympic Games, held in 776 BC

BALL GAMES AS LEISURE ACTIVITIES

Ball games were typically played in the gymnasium, a major building in every city, where children exercised and prepared to be introduced to the assembly of citizens. An essential element of an ancient gymnasium was the sphaeristerium, the ball court where athletes could exercise and keep themselves entertained by playing a variety of ball games.

Illustration of the interior of a Greek gymnasium.
19th-century illustration depicting Greek girls at play from Cassell’s Illustrated Universal History.

The design and construction of the balls used in the games played by the ancient Greeks were such that none of them were suitable to be kicked for any length of time. As a result, a culture of team games that involved participants kicking a ball was simply never developed. With a role largely limited to providing physical exercise and a warm-up for athletes, ball games occupied a marginalised position within society.

Indeed, competitive team sports, played with or without a ball, were never included in the official programme of the great Panhellenic events, such as the Olympics, where personal prowess and performance were the athletes’ primary goals. It is therefore of little surprise that the names of ancient ball players have been lost to history.

Ball games were commonly considered to represent a source of exercise, rather than a means of elite competition.

BALL GAMES
AS MILITARY
TRAINING

Ball games were mainly played for leisure and pleasure purposes throughout ancient Greece. There were, however, two very notable exceptions. In the famous city state of Sparta, and in the Macedon of Alexander the Great, ball games were used as an essential element within military training.

Coloured engraving of a military training agōgē in Sparta.

SPARTA

In ancient Sparta, which reached the height of its power in 404 BC following its victory over Athens in the Second Peloponnesian War, intensive physical exercise was a part of the city-controlled educational system – the so-called agōgē – in which it was considered vital that the male population be constantly prepared for military service.

Ancient literary sources and inscriptions reveal that Spartan youths transitioning into manhood were referred to as sphaireis or ball players. Given that ancient Sparta lacked monumental public buildings, gymnastic activities were initially performed in outdoor spaces on the banks of the Eurotas, although they subsequently shifted close to the civic centre, which was located near to the theatre.

SPHAIROMACHIA

Illustration by José Garnelo (1866-1944) of what may be a game of sphairomachia.

Sphairomachia

One of the games that Spartan youths played on a regular basis was sphairomachia, a literal translation of which would be “ball fighting”, from where gymnastics is thought to have originated. Despite most of the literary and archaeological evidence dating to later times, mainly from the Roman era and no earlier than 70-75 AD, ball games are almost certain to have existed in Sparta, at least from the Archaic period onwards.

Sphairomachia was a highly competitive team game contested in a tournament format that comprised several rounds and involved squads of 12 to 14 youths who represented the five tribes of ancient Lacedaemon. As its name suggests, it was a rather violent game, although the precise details of how it was played remain unclear. To emerge victorious, a team had to display a combination of individual dexterity to snatch and quickly throw the ball, and collective strength to drive the opposition back. As for the spectators, the event must have been quite enthralling, which explains the pride with which Spartans viewed their tribal teams. The victorious tribe was allowed to erect a commemorative stele featuring the names of its members or sphaireis.


Black-figure goblet probably showing sphairomachia (600-400 BC). ©RMN-Grand Palais (musée du Louvre) / Hervé Lewandowski

Pompeii mosaic depicting Alexander the Great (356-323 BC) riding his horse, Bucephalus.

ALEXANDER THE GREAT
(365-323 BC)

The ancient Macedonians were just as enthusiastic as their Spartan counterparts about using ball games as a part of their military training regime. Homeric culture and values served as a prototype for the Macedonian court and Alexander the Great, a lover of the Homeric epics, was an avid ball player. An anecdote recounted by Plutarch reveals that Alexander used to play ball games with his companions as a leisure pursuit.

Indeed, famous ball players were feted in his court. Athenaeus refers to a celebrated player by the name of Aristonicus, who hailed from the Euboean city of Carystus, to whom the Athenians not only granted citizenship, but also erected a statue. He was also afforded the highest civic privilege of attending state dinners at the prytaneion, the city hall of ancient Athens.

Plutarch also reported that Alexander was generous in bestowing gifts on a fellow ball player called Serapion, whilst noting that ball games were a regular military exercise in the Macedonian armies following Alexander’s death. The esteem in which Alexander held ball players is reflected in the accounts of Antigonus the One-Eyed (382-301 BC).

Marble portrait sculpture of Alexander the Great (2nd-1st century BC.).

“Seeing some of his soldiers playing ball in their breastplates and helmets, he was much pleased and sent for their officers, wishing to commend them. But when he heard that they were engaged in drinking, he gave their positions to their soldiers.”

Antigonus the One-Eyed as quoted in Plutarch, Moralia, Sayings of Kings and Commanders

Tetradrachm of Antigonus the One-Eyed. A tetradrachm is an ancient Greek silver coin.

HOW THE
GAME WAS
PLAYED: ROME

There is no evidence to suggest that the Greek team game of episkyros was adopted in the Roman world, but there is no question that the Greeks had an influence on the ball games played by the Romans. Harpastum, like episkyros, was a team-based game and although there are few detailed sources that shed light on its exact nature, it has often been compared to piggy in the middle and dodgeball.

HARPASTUM

THE PITCH

Historical sources do not give any information about the location and the nature of the pitch.

THE PLAYERS

According to an account offered by the physician Galen of Pergamon, “The players line up on opposite sides and exert themselves to keep the man in the middle from getting the ball.” However, little more is known. For instance, we have no information about the number of participating players and how the game started or finished, but we can assume that the player in the middle belonged to one of the two teams.

THE BALL

Pollux described the ball used to play harpastum as being “soft” and it was possibly similar to the feather-stuffed one that featured in the Greek game phaininda. Phaininda involved “snatching” the ball (arpazo in Greek). This subsequently became arpaston and was later transliterated into Latin as harpastum.

GAMEPLAY

It appears that the most violent type of harpastum saw participants line up on opposing sides and shout instructions to each other as they hurled the ball at or above the head of the person in the middle. The man in the middle then attempted either to avoid being hit or to intercept the ball.

The game consisted of throwing and catching a ball, knocking it out of opposing players’ hands, tackling (using wrestling holds) and tricking opponents. If a player’s throw was intercepted, the thrower presumably switched and became the man in the middle. Harpastum is clearly not the forerunner of modern sports in which the aim is to score a goal, touchdown or try. Indeed, it was not until many years later that scoring into a net became a feature of ball games in the Roman world.

THE KATASTROPHḖ

Tom Brady (12) leads a huddle in American football during a game between his team Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Los Angeles Rams in September 2021. A scrum in rugby union during a match between Ireland and New Zealand in November 2018.

The katastrophḗ

A prominent aspect of harpastum is alluded to by the Greek word katastrophḗ and its Latin equivalent, catastropha. Both were used by contemporary writers in descriptions of the game and have been translated variously as “huddle”, a word that belongs to the American football lexicon, and “scrummage”, a term pertaining to rugby union. However, this modern sporting terminology adds elements that are unlikely to have been a feature of the original game and actually refer to entirely different game situations. The literal meaning in both languages seems to relate to “turning back” and may simply involve passing the ball backwards to a team-mate.

TRIGON

The game of trigon, also referred to as pila trigonalis or trigonaria, became so popular that the Romans seemingly came to call it simply “the ball game” (pila). As the name trigon suggests, it involved three players who were set up in a triangle. In some versions, more than one ball may have been used at the same time, which made for a very fast-paced game. A significant comment from otherwise unknown poet Dorcatius refers to a ball of standard weight:

“Don’t hesitate to stuff it with the hair of a long-lived stag, until it weighs an ounce over two pounds.”
Dorcatius, as quoted by Isidore of Seville in his Etymologies, Book 18, 69

Illustration of trigon.

The ball weighed the equivalent of 685 grammes, which made it several times heavier than a baseball or cricket ball, which must weigh between 142 grammes and 164 grammes; it must therefore have been more difficult to throw. If the Dorcatius quote is accurate, we would have good reason to wonder whether he was actually referring to trigon, which is believed to have involved a smallish hard ball, or whether the ball being referred to relates to another game.

Fresco from a Roman tomb (2nd century AD) featuring a scene in which the three people to the right are thought to be playing trigon.

LITERARY SOURCES

The first mention of trigon occurs in the mid-second century BC among the fragments of the Roman satirist Lucilius. Most of our references, however, come from literary sources that date from the first century AD. Roman Stoic philosopher Seneca the Younger offers us some insight into game strategy. Notable features are tactics, skilled and unskilled players, quickness, agility, and good partnership:

Statue of Seneca the Younger (4 BC–65 AD) in Cordoba, Spain.

“The ball must certainly fall by the fault either of the thrower or of the catcher; it only holds its course when it passes between the hands of two persons who each throw it and catch it suitably. It is necessary, however, for a good player to send the ball in one way to a comrade at a long distance, and in another to one at a short distance. If we have to deal with a practised and skilled player, we shall throw the ball more recklessly, for however it may come, that quick and agile hand will send it back again; if we are playing with an unskilled novice, we shall not throw it so hard, but far more gently, guiding it straight into his very hands, and we shall run to meet it when it returns to us... Some spiteful ball players purposely put out their companion, of course to the ruin of the game, which cannot be carried on without entire agreement.”
Seneca the Younger, On Benefits, Book 2, 17

Plan of the Campus Martius in Rome.

Moreover, an account from the Laus Pisonis reveals that skilled players had the ability to hold spectators spellbound, and that other players were often willing to forego their own games just to watch them in action. Such virtuosos stood out among the unskilled and were able to use either hand, with left-handers being especially feared.

In a poem written by Martial that is rather confusing to modern eyes, a hanger-on plays with his patron and catches the ball with his left and right hands. It appears that he picks up the balls missed by his sponsor and hurls the ball in an effort to embarrass the third player. We know from the poet Horace, who was not a fan of the game, that trigon matches took place in the park-like area in Rome known as the Campus Martius, and from several of Martial’s epigrams that the game was also played in the warmth of the large imperial bath complexes.

FOLLIS AND FOLLICULUS

Contemporary writings offer several references to both follis and folliculus and it is not clear whether they were the same or different games; either way, less running, violence and speed were called for than in other ball-based games. It is on this basis that Martial suggests that follis was suitable for both the young and the old, but not for those in between. We know that follis involved players striking a large soft ball that was returned with the use of players’ hands and not thrown.

Illustration of youths playing a ball game. The large, inflated ball would suggest the game was follis or folliculus.

Athenaeus recounts that Atticus of Naples, who trained Pompey the Great, invented folliculus for the purpose of physical exercise during the first century BC. Folliculus was also an activity practised by older citizens, including emperors. Augustus, for example, gave up exercising with horses and weapons in his 30s, immediately after the civil wars, and first took up pila, before going on to play folliculus. Although the specific activity is not named, Pliny the Younger talks in his epistles about Spurinna performing daily exercises with a ball at the ripe old age of 77.

Bronze head of Augustus (63 BC-14 AD) dating from circa 27-25 BC.

PAGANICA AND ARENATA

These are two little-known ball games. According to Martial, the ball used in paganica was not as soft as a follis, nor as hard as the ordinary ball used in pila. It is reasonable to assume that it was large and that two hands were required to hold it. Nothing is known about the ball used in arenata or the balls that featured in other games played largely by children, which involved bouncing a ball or throwing it high into the sky.

Although paganica means “rustic”, there is no surviving evidence to suggest that the game was played in the countryside. Indeed, it was found to have been played in the bath complexes. Many have imagined that it was a game played between different villages, as in the Middle Ages, but this is mere speculation.

Woodcut of the sphaeristerium in Macerata, Italy (1895).

We may deduce from the term arenata that this otherwise unknown ball game was played on sand and was perhaps contested in the sphaeristerium. Given that it does not feature in Martial’s list, perhaps it was a late term for the version of harpastum played on dusty pitches. If so, it adds a new dimension to our knowledge of how players enter that game, with a late source commenting the following:

“The arenata was used in the team game, in which, when the ball was thrown out of the circle of spectators, those standing outside the boundary could catch the ball and enter the game.”
Isidore of Seville, Etymologies, Book 18, 69

Copper engraving of Martial (40-104 AD) from the 18th century.

EARLY
REFERENCES

TIMELINE OF THE FIRST BALL GAME REFERENCES

254 BC

The first references to ball-playing activities in Rome are to be found in the works of one of its earliest writers, Plautus (254-184 BC), who closely imitated Greek models in his plays. However, he does not refer to any game in particular.

200 BC

The first reference to a specific game occurs later in the second century BC, when trigon is referred to in the fragmentary remains of an unknown satirist.

40 AD

During the first two centuries AD, there are four writers who specifically mention harpastum by name: Martial, Pollux, Epictetus and Athenaeus.

Martial (40-104 AD) wrote two epigrams that speak of the “dusty harpastum” and of snatching at the ball at speed. In Epigram 4.19, he promises to send a cloak to keep his correspondent warm while playing harpastum and other games. In Epigram 7.32, he refers to different kinds of ball games, including harpastum. In two poems that were too prurient to be translated in the Victorian era, Martial writes abusive verses referring to a player who swiftly snatched at the ball in the dust and a ball player who played harpastum with tucked-up clothes. These references to the game amount to a mere five lines of the prolific Latin author’s oeuvre.

50 AD

A few years later, Epictetus (50-135 AD) refers to harpastum in Greek, commenting on the rhythm, skill, speed and grace involved, whilst noting that the game can swiftly turn into a battle. Snatching and trickery were major features, as the roots of the term harpastum and its predecessor, phaininda, suggest.

100 AD

The grammarian Pollux (2nd century AD) remarks that the ball used to play harpastum, known in the Greek world as phaininda, was “soft”, while the ball used for the popular sport of trigon was “very hairy and covered with leaves of leather”. Other balls, such as the follis and the smaller folliculus, were larger but lighter and made of inflated animal skins, which made for a slower game.

200 AD

The grammarian and rhetorician Athenaeus of Naucratis (3rd century AD), for whom harpastum was a favourite game, speaks of the exertion and fatigue involved and notes the violent twisting and turning of the neck.

560 AD

Several hundred years later, Isidore, the archbishop of Seville (circa 560-636 AD), refers to the game of arenata in his Etymologies.

ANCIENT SOURCES AND ASSOCIATED ISSUES

How much real insight would we have into modern football if our main sources were brief scenes from the Harry Potter books, the football match for philosophers from Monty Python or scraps from the poetry of A.E. Housman? Clearly, none of these works were designed to serve as a chronicle of the game.

ISSUE NO. 1: SOCIAL CLASS

The problem is not dissimilar when interpreting Roman ball games, as no full accounts, or books of rules, have survived. Almost all of the literary sources are poets, philosophers or polymaths, who were interested not in descriptions of the games, which were known to their readers, but in images, analogies, metaphors, definitions, wit, satire and the like. These male literati, so often associated with the emperors, were primarily concerned with their own social class and generally did not write about the plebs, females or slaves. Our literary evidence for ball games, therefore, deals with a tiny proportion of the population, perhaps less than 5%.

ISSUE NO. 2: PLACE OF BIRTH

As none of our major authors were born in Rome itself, we get a cross section of views from around the Empire. The physician Galen of Pergamon was a native of present-day Turkey during the second century AD. Pollux, a grammarian from the same period, hailed from Egypt, as did Athenaeus, a grammarian whose life spanned the second and third centuries AD. None of these writers are the kind one would expect to be an expert on physical games. In fact, Athenaeus states that he does not value ball games very highly at all.

All three of these writers eventually settled in Rome and wrote in Greek for their bilingual Roman readership. The most prominent Latin author on ball games, Martial, the first-century AD poet from what is now Spain, wrote many witty and satirical poems that encompass all levels of society within Rome, but not from the historian’s point of view. The treatise on recreation by Suetonius, composed in Greek in the first or second century AD, would have doubtless clarified many issues had it survived.

Graffiti on the Via dell’Abbondanza in Pompeii.

ISSUE NO. 3: FEW SOURCES

When it comes to discovering the nature of Roman ball games, art and archaeology do help us to some extent. The three graffiti inscribed on a Pompeii wall that suggest that the average person also played ball games – to what extent remains a mystery – serve to add another dimension to our understanding.

Were there written records, statistics or training regimes? We simply cannot tell. What we do know is that no ball player earned idol status in the city of Rome, whose sporting heroes came from the ranks of free gladiators and charioteers.

BALL GAMES
IN ROMAN
SOCIETY

A LARGELY UPPER-CLASS PURSUIT

Modern-day football is known as the people’s game because it is played by those of every class, race and creed. In contrast, ball games in Rome were mainly played by the upper classes. A telling remark made by Sidonius in the fifth century AD informs us that particular groups played ball after church, while the others went elsewhere. Indeed, the rich and poor did not play together.

For the Roman upper classes, ball games brought social prestige. Impromptu games were a regular occurrence, as when Cicero the orator went to the Campus Martius to play with his fellow intellectuals, or when the politician Cato the Younger did the same in a bid to unwind in the aftermath of electoral defeat. Meanwhile, emperors played for both fitness and enjoyment.

We are also aware that the wealthy often had their own ball court or sphaeristerium from as early as the third century BC in Greece, with Theophrastus observing in his Characters that social climbers devoted a special area in their villas to ball games. The affluent were now able to exercise in private and incorporate this facility into their daily routine.

It soon became the model for well-to-do citizens, such as Pliny the Younger, who boasted sufficient wealth to own two courts that were large enough to accommodate small crowds of onlookers. According to the poet Statius, some of the indoor rooms were warmed by an underfloor heating system known as a hypocaust, while others were open-air facilities. Special black earth was imported to make a hard-packed, smooth surface that could become dusty.

“I especially favour that exercise
which promotes sufficient health
for the body, harmonious develop-
ment of its parts, and arete in the
spirit. All of these are to be found
in exercise with the small ball.”

Galen, Exercise with a Small Ball

Engraving by J. W. Cook of Theophrastus (372-287 BC).
Wall painting from Pompeii depicting two men playing dice.

A MATCH IN POMPEII

The thoughts of ordinary people on ball games are as significant as they are rare. Some are found in brief handwritten scrawls on the walls of buildings that survived the volcanic eruption of 79 AD in the city of Pompeii. These come together to form an announcement about a forthcoming game, in which four players, two ballboys and an official seem to be involved.

We therefore have an arranged venue, maybe the baths, and a semi-formal match with a superintendent pĭlīcrĕpus who may have also acted as the scorer. It could be that the scorer counted the number of dropped catches, as referred to by Petronius in his Satyricon, which dates from the same century, or maybe the scorer was tasked with counting interceptions.

Although there may well have been winners and losers in Roman ball games, the emphasis, at least among the upper classes, was on recreation and skill. It also seems plausible that the Pompeian announcement implies that spectators were welcome.

What we do not know is the name of the ball game, although that would have been obvious to any townsperson reading the notice. The intellectuals would have us believe that ball games were the preserve of gentlemen. However, this graffiti in Pompeii seems to tell another story. Estimates as to how many people were literate vary wildly, but the graffiti clearly served its purpose in Pompeii as the social media for the average citizen, who it appears was able to understand it.

Hand-coloured woodcut of a wealthy family in ancient Rome (19th century).

ROMAN PUBLIC PARKS AND BATH COMPLEXES

A park known as the Campus Martius, which covered some 250 hectares near the river Tiber, and the seven imperial thermae or bath complexes scattered throughout Rome offered everyone in the city equal opportunities to play ball games. At least in theory. The rich and poor could access the baths for free, but the same did not apply to the slaves. These multipurpose establishments were the ancient equivalent of present-day leisure centres.

Oil on canvas of the Baths of Caracalla in Rome (1899).

They were the defining symbol of Romanisation, as every community in the Empire had at least one. They represented a fundamental part of daily life and a favourite meeting place among locals. Warmed by an elaborate underfloor central heating system, these technological marvels boasted the best drainage and sanitation facilities in Europe up until the 19th century.

Ancient Rome used more water than modern Rome did up until the middle of the 20th century. Social distinctions disappeared when all were naked, although the rich could always flaunt the number of their slaves, who were allowed entry only as attendants and helpers.

Plan of the Baths of Caracalla in Rome.

SPHAERISTERIUM

As well as acting as communal bathing areas, these monumental structures hosted indoor recreational activities. The inclusion of a court for ball players (the sphaeristerium) that was easily accessible to the public no doubt served to boost the popularity of ball games, although according to the intellectuals, it could attract a noisy and unsavoury crowd. However, the extent to which the lower classes participated in ball games in these facilities remains unknown. There was an enormous discrepancy in Rome in terms of wealth and leisure time.

Illustration of a Roman Gladiator by Jean-Leon Gerome from 1872.

BREAD AND CIRCUSES

The life of the poor was vastly different to that of the upper-class citizen, with the former constantly immersed in a battle for survival. The emperors provided the poor with free food in the form of corn, and entertainment, notably gladiatorial contests and chariot racing – the famous “bread and circuses” (with the Latin word circenses also referring, by extension, to games). In the Eastern Empire, Constantinople had as many as nine of these public baths, but they fell into disuse after the sixth century AD, perhaps for financial reasons or even changes in attitude within the Christian state.

WOMEN AND BALL GAMES

Women had a limited role in public life in Rome and there is little evidence that they took part in ball games. In theory, they had access to the bath complexes and their sphaeristerium, although to what extent they used these facilities is unknown. The lack of evidence should come as little surprise given that all of our sources are male, with their bias evident when they divide women into two classes: the respectable and unrespectable. In a long and bitter poem, the satirist Juvenal admonishes the woman who works out with weights in the baths, while Martial devotes a witty poem to Philaenis in which he employs the most colourful of language to poke fun at her as she seeks to act like a man by participating in ball games and lifting weights, among other activities.

Mosaic in the Villa Romana del Casale in Sicily (4th century AD).

Women did participate as gladiators in the arena, seemingly as a novelty act in Nero’s days, but also, on occasion, as serious combatants who could be rewarded with statues. A mosaic from a Sicily villa from the fourth century AD depicts eight females competing in a sporting context. There are two athletes in bikinis playing ball in the bottom right and one holding weights in the top left amid jumpers, discus throwers, runners, and others, who are engaged in a contest, as illustrated by the symbolic crown and palm of victory that feature in the mosaic. The apparent anomaly of girls competing for a prize, perhaps in a female pentathlon, may be explained by the fact that Sicily was a former Greek colony, with such competitions attested in Greece.

GALEN OF PERGAMON

One of the dinner guests at a banquet given by Athenaeus was Galen of Pergamon, a city that lies in present-day Turkey (Bergama), who settled in Rome and became a physician to various emperors and a trainer of gladiators. As one of the leading figures in the history of medicine and philosophy in the ancient Greek and Roman world, his almost 50 years of practice and systematic training of gladiators had an enormous influence. Among Galen’s numerous treatises on how training could support the promotion of health, his On Exercise with a Small Ball advocated the advantages of such physical activity compared to other exercises, especially in relation to military training.

Engraving by Louis Figuier (1819-1894) from 1866 depicting Galen of Pergamon giving a demonstration on anatomy.

To modern readers, it is disappointing that Galen uses the generic Greek word sphaîra to refer to a ball and offers no other information about the kind of ball, or games, that he had in mind. However, one game he does mention would appear to be harpastum, with references to the man in the middle and neck holds, and a particular emphasis on the violence and physicality involved:

“When the players line up on opposite sides and exert themselves to keep the man in the middle from getting the ball, then it is a violent exercise with many neck holds mixed in with wrestling holds. Thus, the head and neck are exercised by the neck holds, and the sides and chest and stomach are exercised by the clinches and jostles and tugs and the other wrestling holds. In this game the legs and hips are violently stretched and strained, for they provide a base for such exertion. The combination of running forwards and backwards and jumping sideways is no small exercise for the legs.”
Galen, Exercise with a Small Ball

Statue of Galen of Pergamon (129-216 AD) in present-day Bergama, Turkey.

One presumes that he is referring here to the most energetic version of harpastum, which he sees as being beneficial in military training. Galen suggests that ball games represented ideal training for the fitness of both body and mind. He reasons that it was easy to find the time and a venue for such games, that they exercised the whole body, could be practised individually, in pairs or in teams and at different levels of intensity, and were less dangerous than other sports.

GOAL!
AT LAST A NET
TO SCORE INTO

In the Eastern Roman Empire based in Constantinople, also known as the Byzantine Empire, the most popular sport was chariot racing, but it was here that a new ball game emerged in which the aim was to put the ball into a net.

Illustration of Constantinople by Giorgio Albertini (1930-2020).

TZYKANION

Just as the Greeks influenced the Romans in the early days, in the late Empire, we find an influence from further afield in the shape of Persia. For the first time in the ancient Roman world, we have definitive evidence of a game in which a ball was struck with a club or stick and that involved a net to score into. As early as the fifth century AD, Emperor Theodosius II built the first arena for a ball game called tzykanion in his imperial palace. Many later emperors also played the game and suffered the occasional accident and even death.

Solidus of Theodosius II minted in Constantinople in the 5th century. A solidus is a highly pure gold coin.
Etching of a ball game played on horseback in Persia that resembles modern-day polo and was the inspiration for tzykanion.

A vivid description of this dangerous game is offered by Joannes Cinnamus (also known as John Kinnamos), a historian and secretary to the emperor, in his 12th-century Historiae. It is noted that this particular game is played by youths, presumably from the noble class, not in the royal palace but on an appropriate stretch of land.

We have seen that the nobility in Rome played ball games on foot, whilst in the Eastern Empire, games were now contested on horseback and involved a goal. Rather than using the traditional polo stick with a hammer-like head, these contestants played with a lacrosse-style stick that featured netting at the end.

“When the ball is hit by the clubs into either goal, victory falls to that side. The game is dangerous and full of accidents, for the player must constantly bend in the saddle, twist his body, turn his horse abruptly and continually vary his pace and movements to conform with the movement of the ball.”

Cinnamus (Kinnamos), Historiae

SIDONIUS APOLLINARIS

In the mid-fifth century AD, the Bishop of Clermont in Roman Gaul wrote a lengthy letter that in part refers to a ball game that seems to be harpastum.

“We soon split into two groups, according to our ages: one shouted for the ball, the other for the board game, both of which were to be had. I was the first to call for the ball game; you know that book and ball are my twin companions... We had a great game with a party of students, doing our best at the healthy exercise with limbs which our sedentary lives made much too stiff for running.

Illustration of Sidonius Apollinaris (431-479), the bishop of Clermont.

And now the illustrious Philimatius sturdily flung himself into the ranks of the players (…) he had been a splendid player himself in his younger years. While he stood watching, he was repeatedly jostled by the middle runner. At last he joined in the game, but the ball flew past him, or was thrown over his head; and he failed to intercept or dodge it. More than once he fell flat on his face and barely saved himself from a disastrous fall; so, he was the first to withdraw from the violent action of the game breathing heavily and hot all over.”
Sidonius Apollinaris, Letters, Book 5, 17. 6-7

The bishop was clearly passionate about ball games and should be considered a reliable source on this violent contest that was played in the provinces by Christians. The terms he uses for the ball are the generic sphaîra and pila and there were numerous players involved in this impromptu match that was played on a piece of level ground. There was a mixture of young and old players, especially the former. The author does not refer to himself as an old player, despite being 39 at the time. However, this vigorous game was too demanding for a former expert player, who took part as a substitute.

Given the references to features such as a man in the middle, a ball thrown over the head and interceptions, as well as the violence, we can be confident in identifying the game as harpastum, or at least a variation of it.

BEWARE OF FAKE NEWS

The origins of football have been seen in several countries, each proudly claiming the game as its own. Some writers have allowed emotion to go beyond reason in tracing its beginnings to the Greco-Roman world.

MONUMENT FROM SINJ

In 1969, a magazine article proclaimed that Dalmatia, a region in modern-day Croatia, was the original home of football, based on evidence offered by a 2,000-year-old monument from Sinj. This memorial shows a single figure holding a ball that is smaller than a modern football. With no further information about what the ball was used for, one can hardly list this as the earliest artefact relating to the game. Serious scholars who have examined the context point out that the monument is dedicated to a seven-year-old boy. It depicts a children’s game probably of the kind mentioned by the sources in the Roman period to which it is dated.

Postage stamp issued to celebrate Greece’s first involvement in a FIFA World Cup (the 1994 edition). The stamp features the grave stele from Zea juxtaposed with a modern-day footballer wearing a Greece shirt. The ancient footballer is afforded extra gravitas by the association with the Statue of Liberty in the USA, which hosted the tournament.

STAMP

In 1994, to mark Greece’s first participation in the FIFA World Cup, a postage stamp was issued that juxtaposed the image of an ancient Greek athlete with a modern footballer. As the implicit association with the origins of the game lacks any other supporting evidence, the ancient relief is best interpreted as an individual balancing a ball on his thigh, an activity the ancients would have admired for the skill it required. There is no indication that more than one player is involved, as would be the case in a team game.

Postage stamp issued to celebrate Greece’s first involvement in a FIFA World Cup (the 1994 edition).

ROMAN TROOPS

Those searching for an Italian heritage for football have attempted to trace its roots back to the Roman legionaries, who they believe played an early version of harpastum. Such commentators rightly note that the Roman troops organised themselves into four lines, namely the hastati, velites, principes and triarii. They speculate that over time, these lines became attack, midfield, defence and even a goalkeeper in a game played with a ball. Some even suggest that Julius Caesar imported the game into Britain during his invasions in the middle of the first century BC. They further conjecture that we can associate this game with the origins of calcio fiorentino and other similar medieval ball games.

Illustration of the medieval ball game of calcio fiorentino.

All of this seems very convincing, until we take a closer look at the evidence, that is. For starters, there is no ball associated with the legions. The original Latin texts show that the soldiers did not play with a ball (pila), but rather exercised with a javelin (pilum), the traditional weapon used across the four legions of the Roman army. Whilst the difference in spelling may be minimal, the objects being referred to are worlds apart.

Illustration of a Roman legion at Bama, in modern-day Nigeria, in 206 BC.

THE GRECO-ROMAN BALL GAMES
AND THEIR PLACE IN SPORTING HISTORY

Given that the Romans bequeathed so much to future generations throughout their known world, it is surprising that ball games were not part of that legacy. Despite what the English founders of association football interpreted as a direct lineage from episkyros to harpastum and then on to calcio fiorentino in Italy and folk football in Great Britain, it is impossible to establish such a link.

Based on the evidence offered by literature, objects, inscriptions, graffiti, murals and mosaics – meagre though it is – we can conclude that the Greeks and Romans played many kinds of ball games. The balls they used were as varied as the games they played, but the emphasis was mainly on exercise and relaxation. Galen’s treatise On Exercise with a Small Ball is perhaps therefore the standout text of the age when it comes to ball games, and a modern-day player like Cristiano Ronaldo, who follows a strict training regime, would no doubt consider his work to be a significant legacy of the ball games of ancient Europe.

Ball players enjoyed the ability to socialise in public places and hoped to benefit from the physical exercise and delay ageing. In this sense, there are parallels with the Victorian ideals of muscular Christianity that helped to shape modern-day ball games. Followers believed that by exercising the body, they could also improve the mind. Greek and Roman ball play therefore resembles our own recreational (or pickup) games played by millions around the world every week, with no religious and limited military connotations.

In both Greece and Rome, there were other sports that were far more popular and important than ball games – sports that were a mass spectacle, with records, famous athletes and even governing bodies, including ancient chariot racing, the Olympics and, to a lesser extent, gladiatorial contests. The modern-day FIFA World Cup may bear no relation to the ancient ball games, chariot racing or gladiatorial contests, but it does owe much to the spectacle and pursuit of excellence passed down to us from classical antiquity.

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