Sphaeristerium ? Mystères et jeux de balle

Abstract

The sphaeristerium was the place where Roman men played to ball game. The word is documented by three or four inscriptions discovered in Sicily, in Germania Superior, in Cyrenaica, and Gallia Narbonensis. This game room was designated as paganicum by epigraphy in Africa Proconsularis. Pliny the Younger described the sphaeristeria he possessed in his uillae. It is noticed Digest proved these places were located in private gardens. Sphaeristerium was in any case associated with bath and heated rooms. Gamers and ball boys were well known by literary and epigraphic documents: young persons, old men, freedmen, slaves gamed skillfully in order to relax themselves, to try out their ability. The corpus dated from 1st century AD until to 3rd century AD highlights a sociability complied with uirtus and bodily practices coming from palestra.

Keywords

• sphaeristerium
• pila
• pilicrepus
• paganicum
• sociability
• uirtus