Harpastum was a ball game played in the Roman Empire, also called the small ball game. The Romans had four sizes of balls for sports, and they used the smallest one for Harpastum. Compared to Roman sports like gladiator competitions and chariot races, Harpastum was played for fun, not as a giant spectacle. Literary sources describe Romans playing the sport amongst friends or colleagues as a form of private entertainment. Sidonius Apollinaris, a Roman poet, diplomat, and bishop, mentioned in his letters that he played the game with his friends. Since the game was more of a private affair, it was not recorded as well as the big spectacles of the Colosseum. Reconstructing Harpastum relies on literary evidence and comparisons of two similar Greek games that inspired the Roman game of Harpastum. Due to its scarce documentation, it is challenging to determine Harpastum’s date of origin. Probably invented around the time of the Roman Republic, this would put its earliest probable appearance around or immediately before the 5th century BC. Within my research, I can’t help but feel similar to a scientist in the book/movie “Jurassic Park” inserting frog DNA into the sequence to create the dinosaur.

While the game was especially popular with common folk and children, it later was coopted by Julius Caesar to become a sneaky way of getting his soldiers to train during leisure time. Galen, the ancient Greek and Roman physician, would attest to the

effectiveness of Harpastum as a training tool and exercise modality for soldiers."(Harpastum) is better than wrestling or running because it exercises every part of the body, takes up little time, and costs nothing"; it was "profitable training in strategy" and could be "played with varying degrees of strenuousness." Galen adds, "When, for example, people face each other, vigorously attempting to prevent each other from taking the space between, this exercise is a very heavy, vigorous one, involving much use of the hold by the neck, and many wrestling holds." A game good for conditioning, wrestling, communication, and teamwork could be integral for keeping the legionnaires ready for combat. It was said that when Rome expanded into the British Isles, they taught the game to the inhabiting Britons and Celts. The Britons became so adept at the game that they even occasionally defeated a legionnaire team.

Descriptions of the ball used in Harpastum vary by what it was made of and filled with. What is consistent amongst the descriptions is that it was the smallest ball used for games, approximately the size of a modern softball. The ball was hard, either made of reeds, leather, animal skin, or even pig bladder. It was filled with feathers, grass, rags, or hair. One gory description mentions that the legionnaires would also play with the heads of defeated Gauls.

The etymology of the word Harpastum has several meanings depending on which source you believe. One meaning is the Latin version of the Greek word harposton, which means “carried away” from the Greek verb “harpazein” meaning “to seize, to snatch.” Another possibility could be from the word “harpago,” which means “an iron-grabbing tool with fingers. The word Harpastum would later be translated to “handball” in Latin.

According to the ancient historian and rhetorician Julius Pollux, “Phaininda takes its name from Phaenides, who first invented it, or from phenakizein ("to deceive") because they show the ball to one man and then throw to another, contrary to expectation. This likely is the same as the game with the small ball, which takes its name from harpazein ("to snatch"); and perhaps one would call the game with the soft ball by the same name.” Another Greek rhetorician and grammarian would verify the connection between Phaininda and Harpastum. The game also drew inspiration from another Greek game called Episkyros (meaning common ball). The two sports, Phaininda and Episkyros, had similar rules, which Harpastum borrowed from, but inverted the premise by focusing on ball control or invasion tactics. However, like many things in Roman history, they increased the sport's violence beyond what was seen in the Greek versions of the game.

According to several ancient historians' and writers' descriptions, Harpastum had two versions. Both versions simultaneously featured twelve to fourteen players (6 V 6 or 7 V 7). The first version could be described as an ancient form of rugby as two teams tried to get the ball past an endline. The ball could be passed by hand and, occasionally, by foot. The more popular version of the game was an inverted form where the objective was to keep the ball on your half of the field and keep it away from your opponents. Additional descriptions suggest a line was drawn in the dirt and that the teams would endeavor to keep the ball behind their side of the line and prevent the opponents from reaching it. If the opponents had the ball on their side of the line, the objective would be to get in and "pass" it to another player or get it back over the line. Players would pass the ball among their teammates in an attempt to keep it within their own zone while holding back the rivaling team. An opposing player could snatch the ball away and try to throw it

back to their own zone, though this could be intercepted. While records suggest the goal of each team was to keep the ball within their own zone, it is unknown how points were tallied. It is possible they were awarded based on time kept by a referee or perhaps earned after a certain number of passes within the zone.

Players were allowed to lock opponents in wrestling holds to disable the opposition. This would support the theory that points were awarded based on successful passes within a zone, as incapacitating team members defending the ball would inhibit their ability to pass. However, this would also support the theory that points were awarded based on ball time within a zone, as players defending the ball could put members of the offense in wrestling holds to increase the time in their zone. Documents regarding Harpastum mention interceptions, fumbles, and tackling. Common tactics for both episkyros and Harpastum included juking opponents by pretending to throw the ball in one direction and quickly throwing it in another, leading to the games’ association with both deception and neck strain (however, if they were putting each other in wrestling holds, you would think the holds would be the reason for the neck strain). The ancient playwright Antiphanes would describe Harpastum as “'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 teammate 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.'

There are several accounts for the role of the “middle player,” termed in Latin
the medicurrens. Such a player is mentioned in several ancient literary accounts
of Harpastum. Scholars descriptions of the seemed like there was one per team medicurrens to each team, but the player is always described in the singular. Therefore, it seems likely that the medicurrens belonged to the team with the ball. In modern terms, this would be like a participant playing "all-time offense." After a change of possession, the medicurrens would cede his role to a player on the opposing team, so the two players would frequently switch positions throughout the game. This “middle player” may have acted as a sort of midfielder, keeping to the center of the green so that he could either quickly toss the ball upfield to score points or drop back to help on defense. As
the currens suffix would suggest, the "middle player" seems to have done a substantial amount of running. In one ancient account of Harpastum, Sidonius Apollinaris mentions the medicurrens quitting the game after becoming too exhausted from running back and forth.

In the Croatian town of Sinj, a Roman tombstone found in the ruins of the military camp Tilurium, near modern-day Trilj, shows a boy holding a Harpastum ball in his hands. The ball shown on this monument has hexagonal and pentagonal patterns, similar to a modern-day football. In a Roman mosaic from Ostia, a Harpastum game is played, showing the players wearing red tunics without armor or padding. This would suggest that the sport was for the everyday person since it required no extra material or equipment other than a ball, similar to how soccer is poplar worldwide. It does not appear that Harpastum directly inspired modern rugby or soccer. Still, instead, it was one of the branches on an evolutionary tree from a common ancestor sport from the past.

Materials:

• A gym or sizeable outdoor play space
  o If you are outside, you will need something to mark the size of the playing

  area, as well as a half court line.

• A soft dodgeball or equivalent ball that works well for throwing

• Jerseys or pinnies

  Prior Knowledge: This lesson should be taught when the students study Ancient Greece and Rome. This lesson works well once you finish Greece and begin studying Rome. Like many Roman things, this game seems to be inspired, if not wholly borrowed, from the Greeks.

Age: All Ages, but intended more for upper elementary