The ancient Roman sport harpastum was a physical gauntlet of a sport. The sport has drawn modern day comparisons to football, but there are some very important distinctions. The first being physicality. Harpastum has been described as extremely violent as there are records of broken limbs and many other injuries. The game is played with two teams on a field divided by a line in the middle. There were other lines on the field to mark boundaries. Each team had the same goal, keep the ball on your own side of the line. The players would pass the ball among the team to try and keep their opponent from gaining possession and possibly bringing it back to their side of the midline. There is no real documentation on how points were kept, but historians believe that either it was based on time of possession on the possessing team’s side of the midline, or completed passes on the possessing team’s side of the midline. Both of these are realistic options, as there is documentation stating that players on the same team would pass the ball back and forth. Harpastum did not have complex or complicated rules, but was rather straightforward: maintain possession and you win. To succeed in harpastum players needed a combination of both size and speed. The ball is sized like a modern day softball, which is why the sport is often referred to as  “small ball game”. The ball was hard and stuffed with feathers, which gave it the softball like appearance. 

The use of wrestling style holds were allowed to disable attacking opponents, as well as to defend the ball while in possession. Within documentations there are mentions of interceptions, tackling and fumbles, all common terms used when describing modern day sports. While deception such as ball fakes and jukes were also included. 

Based on the rules and style of game, harpastum could be compared to modern day football, but the better comparison is rugby. With a similar style of keep away, as well as physicality, the games are very similar. Players in both rugby and harpastum need agility and size. The use of ball fakes and deception are also very common in rugby.

This leads me to another ancient ball game, episkyros. Epsikyos is believed to be the game that harpastum is based upon. Episkyros can first be seen being played in ancient Greece. The central difference between harpastum and episkyros was the goal of the game. In episkyros the goal is to get the ball behind the other team’s zone, similar to that of a touchdown in football. Both of these games are team oriented as you need around 10-12 players per team. 

I have included below an excerpt from healthahoy.com on how to play episkyros today without all of the violence.

Play Today!

To play episkyros today, you’ll need a mini volleyball (or another cushioned ball around the size of a softball) and some small traffic cones. Since the rules of this ancient game aren’t known in detail, here’s a fun, modern version (without the violence):

Find a soccer field or any other sports field with a line down the middle. If you don’t have access to one, use training cones to mark the corners of the field and some white field-marking paint to divide the area in half. Split up into teams of 12 to 14 players and have them stand on the back lines of their respective sides. At the sound of a whistle, both teams try to be the first to reach the ball placed in the middle of the field.

Since we aren’t sure of the rules of episkyros, the best way to play would be to adapt the rules of American football. The biggest change would be removing individual plays, letting the game continue without pause until a team scores or the ball goes out of bounds. The team with the most points at the end of two 30-minutes halves wins.

(healthahoy.com)

Citations:

Harpastum. https://www.topendsports.com/sport/extinct/harpastum.htm. Accessed 29 Apr. 2022

“Roman Harpastum (Ball Game).” Health and Fitness History, https://healthandfitnesshistory.com/ancient-sports/roman-harpastum-ball-game/. Accessed 29 Apr. 2022.

“Greek Episkyros (Ball Game).” Health Ahoy, https://healthahoy.com/ancient-sports/greek-episkyros-ball-game/. Accessed 29 Apr. 2022.

“Ancient Roman Ball Games, Harpastum, Roman Soccer.” Ancient-Rome.info, 7 Oct. 2017, https://ancient-rome.info/ancient-roman-ball-games/.

Editorial Team. “Harpastum: The Ancient Roman Empire Ball Game.” History Of Soccer, 1 Sept. 2021, https://historyofsoccer.info/the-ancient-game-of-harpastum.

I watched the show Thermae Romae. The show follows a struggling Roman Architect, Lucius Modestes, who has hit the equivalent of writer’s block, but for Architects. The first episode has Lucius struggling to come up with new architectural ideas. To relax, he and his friends go to a bathhouse. While in the bath, Lucius puts his head under water to which he then discovers a drainage system which surprisingly leads him to a bathhouse in modern Japan. He is amazed by the design and the modern luxuries they have. As he takes a swig of sweetened milk he is magically taken back to Rome. With him he also takes the ideas of the Modern Japan bath back to Rome and incorporates them into the Roman bathhouse. This bathhouse is a great success. He is then summoned by the Consul, Lepidus, to build a bathhouse outside of the Lepidus’ home. While he searches for the source of a hot spring nearby he is once again teleported to a modern Japanese bathhouse, this one a hot spring bath house. Once again he takes these modern innovations back to Rome in which he incorporates them back into the bath house again. He continues his buildings after coming upon these new discoveries. 

Reflection:

Watching an anime for Roman Revs was really fun. It was also really interesting seeing the mashing of modern Japan, my home, and Rome. I liked how Lucius incorporated a lot of what he got from his time in Modern Japan. The little elements such as Sake or flavored milk really brought another level of Japanese back to Rome. An unexpected crossover, but it provided an interesting viewing experience to say the least. I have always been a fan of anime so seeing media that combines both things I am learning in class and a style of media that I enjoy was really fun.