Team+Sports

There were not any team sports in ancient Rome.

Instead they had many other INDIVIDUAL sports. The most popular and most commonly known arethe Gladiator fights. But there are other sports then these fights. other sports include Campus, Ball Games, and Board Games.

__**Campus**__ Roman Games (Field & Track) In the city, there was a place called the //Campus//. This was the old drill ground for soldiers. It was a large section of plain near the Tiber River. Over time, the Campus became ancient Rome's field and track playground. Even such famous people as Caesar and Augustus exercised on the Campus. Young men, all over Rome, gathered at the Campus to play and exercise. On the Campus, men participated in foot racing, jumping, archery, wrestling and boxing. After a bout of exercise, they might jump in the Tiber River for a swim, or wander off to the Baths, to relax. All over Rome, men practiced riding, fencing, wrestling, throwing, and swimming. In the country, men went hunting and fishing. At home, men played ball before dinner, which were games of throwing and catching. Women were not allowed to join in these games. [] __**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 Dodge Ball. An additional game called Roman Ball is theorized to fill some gaps. The pages linked on the right provide descriptions of these games. Soccer is a natural game and although the Romans may not have played team soccer there are references to boys kicking balls around in the streets. Cicero described one court case in which a man getting a shave was killed when a ball was kicked into the barber. The ball must have been an inflated pila. The mosaic from Ostia, above, shows what appears to be an inflated pila, stitched in the fashion of modern soccer balls. Considering that this scene represents a gym, it might be also a paganica, or medicine ball, but paganicas are always shown as oblong. __**[]**__