EVIDENCE OF JUGGLING, B.C.

From . 'The Reliquary & Illustrated Archaeologist, " January 1907.

Skill in throwing and catching balls and knives is not a modern invention, for juggling was practiced by the Egyptians, Greeks and Romans, and it is evidence in the relics which have come down to us from the Middle Ages.

If some of the records may be taken as faithful representations, feats of jugglery have for centuries been performed which would tax the skill even of our contemporary Cinquevalli.

Among the Egyptians playing with the ball was practiced in varying forms... The wall paintings of the Beni-Hassan tombs, on the east bank of the Nile near Speos Artemidos also give evidence of what may be more specifically termed juggling. Here one of the players is preparing to catch a single ball. The others are juggling with three balls, and one is adding to the difficulty of the feat by crossing the arms.

Several kinds of playing with balls are referred to in the Odyssey... Among the Greeks, jugglers' tricks are frequently represented. On a silver coin of Terina, Nike is represented as seated and playing with two round stones with her right hand, one being in the air and the other on the back of her hand; and again, on the coins of Larissa, a female figure kneeling is represented as playing with a ball.

The number of examples of juggling on ancient vases shows that it was a favorite recreation of women. A woman seated is shown as playing with two balls on a vase from Nola in the British Museum, and the date assigned to it is 430 B.C. Gerhard's Auserlesene Griechische Vasenbilder includes an illustration of a woman seated playing with three balls. A number of other examples are described in a catalogue of the Jatta Museum.

With the Romans, games played with balls were in favor and were practiced especially in the baths. Even Julius Caesar, Marcus Aurelius and Alexander Severus are said not to have disdained to take part in them.

In the Royal Museum at Mantua is a Roman monument with an inscription to Septumia Spica, on which are represented extraordinary feats of skill in juggling. To the right is shown a performance with seven balls, two being in the performer's hands, two near his feet and three in the air. On the left is a similar representation, the player keeping six balls in movement. Labus believed that when the sculpture was in a better condition there were seven balls in this example also.  The seven balls have been taken to bear some reference to the seven planets.

...In Maffei's Museum Veronense (is a representation) of the Consul giving the signal for the games of the circus to begin. Beneath are two horses being led forth and a boy playing with seven balls...

A tablet in honour of one Ursus Togatus, discovered in Rome in 1592, refers to a juggler by name. The inscription quoted in Graevius' Thesaurus Antiquitatum Romanarum, 1699, vol. xii., 393-4, is to the following effect:

"I am Ursus Togatus. I was the first to show skill in playing with balls of glass among my players, to the great applause of the people in the baths of Trajan, Agrippa, and Titus, and very often in those of Nero. Yes, you may be assured that I am Ursus Togatus. Approach you handlers of balls, strew on the statue of your friend flowers, violets, leaves and essence of perfume...' ,

Ursus Togatus was a pilicrepus whose occupation was to manufacture balls for use in the Thermae, to weigh them, and take charge of them, and further, to direct the players in their games. He performed, therefore, a similar function to that of the professional in a modern cricket club; he conducted the game of trigon... It is probable that Ursus Togatus was not merely a pilicrepus who superintended the game, but also a juggler who performed alone with the feat of keeping several balls in motion, and that the play with glass balls refers to this rather than to the game of trigon. ..

(Next: Ball play as a means of keeping the body in health according to ancient Greeks. )