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Christian missionaries encountered it there in the 19th century. In China, the game may well go back to 1000 BC or further. The game was also a common pastime of African village children on the Tanganyika plateau, and not long after it is recorded in the Freetown settler community. Modern usage Īfonso, Prince Imperial of Brazil holding a stick and hoop, 1846Įarly 19th-century travellers saw children playing with hoops over much of Europe and beyond. Such exercises, he holds, are best done before a meal or a bath, as with any physical exercise. Antyllus indicates that at first the player should roll the hoop maintaining an upright posture, but after warming up he can begin to jump and run through the hoop.
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A 2nd-century medical text by Antyllus, preserved in an anthology of Oribasius, Emperor Julian's physician, describes hoop rolling as a form of physical and mental therapy. Ovid in his Tristia is more specific, putting the sport in the same category with horsemanship, javelin throwing and weapon practice: "Usus equi nunc est, levibus nunc luditur armis, Nunc pila, nunc celeri volvitur orbe trochus." It was also presented as a virtue in the Distichs of Cato, which enjoin youth to "Trocho lude aleam fuge" ("Play with the hoop, flee the dice"). According to Horace, hoop driving was one of the manly sports.
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Several ancient sources praise the sport. For Romans, this was more an entertainment and military development, not a philosophical activity. The Roman game was to roll the hoop while throwing a spear or stick through it. According to Strabo, one of the popular Roman venues for practising the sport was the Campus Martius, which was large enough to accommodate a wide variety of activities. CLXVIII) Martial also mentions the sport was practised by Sarmatian boys, who rolled their hoops on the frozen Danube river. It will be a hoop to children, but to me a tyre for my wheel."(14.
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CLXIX) He also indicates that the metal tires of wooden cart wheels could be used as hoops: "A wheel must be protected. According to Martial, this was done so that the tinkling of the rings would warn passers by of the hoop's approach: "Why do these jingling rings move about upon the rolling wheel? In order that the passers-by may get out of the way of the hoop."(14. Roman hoops were fitted with metal rings that slid freely along the rim. The stick was known as a "clavis" or "radius", had the shape of a key, and was made of metal with a wooden handle. The Latin term for hoop is also "trochus", at times referred to as the "Greek hoop". The Romans learned hoop driving from the Greeks and generally held the sport in high regard. Ancient Rome and Byzantium Ī boy playing with hoops, depicted in the 6th-century mosaics of the Great Palace of Constantinople Images of the hoop are sometimes presented in the context of ancient Greek pederastic tradition. A bronze hoop was one of the toys of the infant Dionysus, and hoop driving is an attribute of Ganymede, often depicted on Greek vase paintings from the 5th century BCE. The hoop thus held symbolic meanings in Greek myth and culture. Even very young children would play with hoops. The sport was regarded as healthful, and was recommended by Hippocrates for strengthening weak constitutions. Greek vases generally show the elater as a short, straight stick. The hoop was sized according to the player, as it had to come up to the level of the chest. Hoops, also called krikoi, were probably made of bronze, iron, or copper, and were driven with a stick called the "elater". Although a popular form of recreation, hoop rolling was not featured in competition at the major sports festivals. Hoop rolling was practiced in the gymnasium, and the prop was also used for tumbling and dance with different techniques. The Greeks referred to the hoop as the "trochus". A Greek youth depicted playing with a hoop