Children games
Even in ancient Rome, as in all ages, play activities have been preparations for life. There were group games both in imitation of the activities of the great as hunting or fighting with real representations, that is, what are today called role-playing games, and with toys.
The children of the rich classes had real toys commissioned by their parents to expert craftsmen like the circles (orbis, trochus) to run with the rod (clavis), the spinning tops (turbo), the carts in the shape of an animal with wheels, the dolls (pupae); these objects are seen in the scenes painted in the ceramics, in the mosaics, in the bas-reliefs and many have been found almost intact inside the sarcophagi to accompany the children even in the last trip.
The children had games from early childhood, in fact for the very small there were the crepitacula, some mini rattles made in terracotta invented by the philosopher and mathematician Archita of Taranto. When they greown up also played with the ball and the games were called pila, harpastum, follis, trigon, the latter was a sort of handball.
Many of the male games were imitations of the activities and pastimes of adults; beloved was the chariot race where there was a small cart, a miniature chariot that could be small and that was tied to small animals or large, so that the child could drive it himself and was usually dragged by a sheep, a goat, a dog or a pair of geese as in the mosaic of Piazza Armerina or even another child who was liable to take the place of the horse.
It could not miss among the purely feminine games the doll that the Romans called pupa (diminutive of pupilla) and that it was the favorite toy of the girls to which were also linked deeper cultural meanings; the pupae could be in terracotta, in wood or even in ivory.
The craftsmen who made dolls were called giguli, and they could also give to doll the appearance of girl to whom it was to be donated over a complete set of clothes and even small gold and silver jewels and tiny bronze toilet accessories.
The pupa was not only a toy but also an insigne virginitatis, so to possess a pupa, whatever was the age, meant to be virgo (virgin).
One of the most beautiful dolls that has remained from the ancient world was called Crepereia Tryphaena, from the name of the girl of the 2nd century AD whose sarcophagus was found in Rome in an area near the Mausoleum of Hadrian. The doll was made in ivory even though the weather made it so dark that to see it would look like wood and the precise and delicate workmanship indicates that it was a luxury toy.
But the Roman children also had the oscilla, heads of earthnware ad humanam effigiem arta simulata that were distributed on the occasion of special parties and were the equivalent of modern gadgets or even ancient "figurines" ...
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by M.L. ©ALL RIGHTS RESERVED (Ed 1.0 - 04/10/2019)