The Birth of Soccer

Between 100 and 250 AD - ANCIENT ROME was the capital of the Roman Empire, a blooming civilization. In that period Romans had time to focus on luxurious endeavors like evening dining, sport, arts and... fashion. Believe it or not, but in 102 AD Roman emperor Trajanus decided that socks in sandals looked stupid and declared them officially out of fashion.

Trajanus coined the term 'socker'* to point out anyone who still wore socks in their sandals. 

* Contemporary: sucker

Socks became redundant overnight (Romans only wore sandals). Until a few inventive Romans discovered that socks were perfect juggling attributes if you rolled them into a ball-shaped bundle. A sock bundle is lightweight, doesn't bounce and makes no noise when it hits the floor.

Juggling became Romans' favorite leisure activity after Trajanus' fashion declaration. If you ever tried to juggle, you know how frustrating the activity can be when you are trying to master a new trick. You may compare it to trying to master tennis or golf. It will not surprise you that, with so much juggling going on, there was a lot of cursing in the streets of ancient Rome.

"Deus Damne", "Fucce" and "Feaces!" could be heard in many parks and street corners where jugglers were throwing their socks in attempts to master complicated passing routines. Romans being disturbed in their conversation by loud cursing exchanged understanding looks with their conversational partner while saying... "Ahu... juggling socks".  "Juggling socks" became a common expression of frustration. Much later, the 'juggling' prefix was dropped, so whenever you catch yourself saying "that sucks" - you know where that came from.

But there is more to this story, much more…

Emperor Elagabalus Severus officially banned juggling in 220 AD out of frustration - Elagabalus failed to master the skill due to extreme bad hand-eye coordination. Juggling Romans had to find other uses for both their leisure time and their socks.

As Romans kept gathering in the public places where they used to juggle, they just started to kick the socks around a bit. To make the sock kicking a bit more exciting, they invented a simple competitive group game in which one team scored a point when the sock hit a target on the opponent's side of the playing field. This game was called 'soccer'. (not 'socker', because Latin doesn't have the letter 'K').

You learn so much on Read My Slips. And believe it or not, the best etymological part is yet to come...

After its inception early AD the game of soccer spread through the entire Roman empire, including the geographical area currently known as France. Within 150 years, ‘soccer’ became the national sport in France.

And soon after the Romans had retreated from France, the cruel French replaced the sock by a rooster. They thought it was much more exciting to kick around live poultry. Due to the popularity of soccer, the rooster even became the national symbol of France. 

But of course, in those early days, the game was called... you guessed it...  cocksoccer.

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Enjoy,
Miro