Harpastum was a ball game played in the Roman Empire, also called the small ball game. The Romans had four sizes of balls for sports, and they used the smallest one for Harpastum. Compared to Roman sports like gladiator competitions and chariot races, Harpastum was played for fun, not as a giant spectacle. Literary sources describe Romans playing the sport amongst friends or colleagues as a form of private entertainment. Sidonius Apollinaris, a Roman poet, diplomat, and bishop, mentioned in his