Ball Games

vol. II p. 2832-2834

Ball games

Ball games were played throughout all of antiquity. It was a beloved children’s game (Apoll. Rhod. III 135f. Anth. Pal. VI 309); <20> and grown women also enjoyed spending their time playing (Jacob’s Anth. Gr. I 277. Vasenbilder Jahn Sächs. Ber. 1854, 258. Stephani C. R. 1863, 13, 3); its full history however includes it as a gymnastic game for men, both young and adult. It appears in the Odyssey with the Phaeacians, and was later popular everywhere. Its invention is attributed to the Lydians (Herodot. I 94. Plin. n. h. VII 205), the Corcyraeans, Sykonians, and Spartans (Athen. I 14 d). The last were particularly keen ball players, <30> according to Eust. Od. 1553, 65; the name σφαιρεῖς for the young men just past their Ephebos age is probably connected to the ball games, though it’s first attested during the empire (Paus. III 14, 6. CIG 1386. 1432); a laconian, Timokrates, wrote περὶ σφαιριστικῆς (Athen. I 15 c). In Athens, Sophocles was a superb ball player, and showed this on stage in the role of Nausicaa (Athen. I 20 f). A philosopher who played ball Athen. I 15 c. Alexander the Great also keenly practised playing ball (Plut. Alex. 39. 73); <40> so too did Dionysios the elder (Cic. Tusc. V 60). In particular, it’s reported that the milesians, who promoted more athletic exercises, abolished ball games (Eust. Od. 1601, 42). A lot of importance was attached to the graceful movements in playing ball.; see the depiction of Damoxenos in Athen. I 15 b.

Ball games came to the romans from the greeks, and there it was considered a greek activity (Hor. sat. II 2, 11; cf. a. p. 380); <50> it was played everywhere, and is mentioned very often. The Pontifex Mucius Scaevola (Cic. de or. I 217. Val. Max. VIII 8, 2), Cato the younger (Sen. ep. 104, 33), Augustus (Suet. 83), Maecenas (Hor. sat. I 5, 48) played ball, and there were people who spent all their time doing so (Sen. de brev. vitae 13, 1). In general however, it was played to look after health before the baths (p. 2756, on baths): about its hygienic impact Galen V 899 K. Antyllos in Oribas. I 528. In the gymnasia of the greeks, <60> and also in the villas of the romans, there was enough room to play ball.; see Sphairisterion.

Young people tended to be naked whilst playing ball, as with other sports (Athen. I 15 c. Plut. Alex. 73); even the romans played at least certain games, like the Trigon (Mart. VII 72, 9), were played naked. In Petron. 27, Trimalchio is wearing a tunic like an older man; <page break 2832/2833> on the other hand, it seems that Spurinna (Plin. ep. III 1, 8) played ball naked.

The ball was stuffed with hair (Jacob’s Anth. Gr. IV 291, 23. Baehren’s Poet. Lat. min. IV 376, 59) or feathers (Mart. XIV 45), and held together with cloth, usually colourful: purple (Anacr. frg. 14 Bgk.), green (Petron. 27), golden (Claud. laus Ser. 144), various bright colours (Ovid. met. X 262. Dio Chrys. I 281 R.). We first find out about various types of balls from the roman period: <10> they were differentiated by their sizes and by whether they were stuffed, or only full of air. The ball filled with air, made out of leather and larger than the others, was called follis (see its specific article), also folliculus. The ball commonly stuffed was called pila. Of this, Martial makes distinctions: harpastum (see its specific article), most likely smaller, pila trigonalis (see Trigon), about whose qualities nothing is known in detail, and pagonica (see its specific article), <20> larger and stuffed with feathers. Antyllus in Oribas. VI 32 (where the text is scarcely decent) seems, outside of the follis (κενὴ σφαῖρα, θύλακος), to differentiate between small, medium, and rather lage, and then within the smaller ones, between three different types of stuffing: whether these can be compared with those mentioned by Martial is rather doubtful, considering the time difference; the large and heavy ball thrown with both hands doesn’t turn up elsewhere. <30> A particular trick turned up around the time of Hadrian, where they would use balls made of glass, inscription of Ursus, Orelli 2591, with regards to that Mommsen Ephem. epigr. I p.55.

We have very incomplete information about the different types of game; though they can be classified in the following way:

1. Individual games

The ἀπόρραξις (Poll. IX 103. 105. Hesych. s v.) belongs here, the catching of a ball as it bounces back from being thrown on the ground. Also, the catching of a ball thrown against the wall, <40> which Pollux (IX 106) and Eustathios (Od. 1601, 34) differentiate from ἀπόρραξις; it is portrayed on a throne-relief Ann. d. Inst. 1857 B C. Both, likely essentially children’s games, were played generally as a competition - the throws were counted, the winner was called King, the loser was called Donkey, ὄνος, and had to follow the others’ commands (Poll. loc. cit. Plat. Theaet. 146a. Jacob’s Anth. Gr. IV 291, 23), originally it’s likely that the loser had to carry the others on their back (Becq de Fouquières Jeux des anciens 194): <50> perhaps it’s related to the depiction in Laborde Vases Lamberg I 47, of Erotes amongst girls playing ἀπόρραξις, where one of the girls is carrying an Eros on her back. The link between the words expulsim (see its specific article) ludere (Varro in Non. 104, 27) and this game, namely the latter, is uncertain. The simple throwing and catching of one or more balls appears on vase pictures as a women’s game, Panofka Bild. ant. Leb. 19, 8 (a ball). <60> Roulez Vases de Leyde 20. Müller Musée Thorwaldsen I 84. Heydemann Griech. Vasenb. Taf. 9, 3, cf. p. 9, 12 (three balls); three men with two balls each playing in this way on a wall-painting Vestigia delle Terme di Tito 18; finally, it can be assumed that the successful throws were counted. Whether one of these games had the name ἀνακρουσία (Hesych.) is doubtful. <page break 2833/2834>

2. Catch in pairs

This is how the Phaeacians play in Hom. Od. VIII 370: one throws the ball high up as vertically as possible, the other catches it by jumping at the same time. Simple throwing and catching back and forth appears to be meant in Sen. de benef. II 17, 3--5. Following the term used here (4) of repercutere, it also appears that the ball wasn’t caught, but rather hit back; the object used for this (a raquette or something similar) is mentioned nowhere, <10> though on coins Gordians III., the players held something similar to the Caestus in their right hands (Mercurialis De arte gymn. 89. Becq de Fouquières Jeux des anciens 209; pairs of players Sidon. ep. II 9, 4).

3. Catch with many people

Apoll. Rhod. IV 947, which likely concerns the game played by Nausicaa; also likely Plut. Alex. 39. This, and likely also the previous one, is called datatim ludere, Naev. in Isid. or. I 25. Plaut. Curc. 296. Non. 96, 15. <20> In this and the previous game, the caught balls were counted, Sen. ep. 56, 1. Petron. 27, where it’s a peculiarity of Trimalchio’s that he often counts the balls that have fallen to the floor. Trigon is a type of this game played by three people, going by its name.

4. Large-scale games

(sphaeromachiae, Poll. IX 107. Sen. ep. 80, 1. Stat. silv. IV praef.) were numerous without doubt. This type of game contained ἐπίσκυρος played by two parties (see its specific article), <30> also called ἐπίκοινος and ἐφηβική; furthermore, there was οὐρανία (see its specific article), φενίνδα (see its specific article), which is identified with the game of harpasta played in the roman times (see its specific article; raptim ludere Non. 96, 15); perhaps pila arenaria (see Harpastum) is also identical with this. In these games, the point wasn’t only to catch the ball, but also to grab the balls that had fallen on the floor, making this game very chaotic (Sen. ep. 80, 3). We don’t know anything in more detail about this game, <40> and we also don’t know whether the players were divided into two teams. About such large-scale games, the Galen talk about de parvae pilae exercitio (V 899 K.), Antyllos in Oribas. VI 32, 7. Laus Pisonis (Baehrens Poet. Lat. min. I 225) 185. Sidon. ep. V 17, 7. Dig. IX 2, 52, 4, not that the sort of game can be more precisely determined. The paganica taking its name from a village’s large-scale game (pagus) is an uncertain assumption; nothing has been handed down to us about the game with this ball. <50>

Of an entirely different sort, and not actually ball games, are the exercises written about by Antyllos loc. cit. 3--5, with the smallest and second-smallest balls: it seems that two players, each taking hold of it in a particular way, wrestle over the ball. About a peculiar ball game played on horseback in Constantinople, see Cinnam. hist. VI 5.

G. Eitner De sphaeristica apud Graecos et Romanos, Vratisl. 1860. Becker-Göll Gallus III 168ff. Becq de Fouquières Jeux des anciens² 176ff. Grasberger Erziehung und Unterricht I 84ff. For pictorial presentations, see Babelon Gaz. archéol. 1880, 37, 4.

[Mau.]