Roman Ball Games

Ball-playing was popular among the Romans, and they often spent their morning exercises playing games on the fields (palaestra) or ball-courts (sphaerista). The Romans enjoyed a variety of ball games, including Handball (Expulsim Ludere), Trigon, Soccer, Field Hockey, Harpasta, Phaininda, Episkyros, and certainly Catch and other games that children might invent, like perhaps Dodge Ball. Pila was the term used for ball playing in general, but is here used to define the circular version of harpasta, which may have been the most popular ball game in Roman times. An additional game called Roman Ball is invented here in an attempt to fill in the gaps of our knowledge about ancient circular ball games. The pages linked on the right provide descriptions of these games.

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