Preface and Acknowledgments ix
List of Figures xii
List of Maps xv
List of Tables xvi
Introduction: Ancient Sport History 1
Why Sport History? 4
Word Games: Conceptualizing Sport and Spectacle 7
Challenges: Evidence, Chronology, and Modernism 9
Sports and Spectacles as Cultural Performances 14
Greece and Rome: Positive and Negative Classicism 15
Sports as Spectacle, Spectacles as Sport 16
1 Origins and Essences: Early Sport and Spectacle 22
Mesopotamian Combat Sports and Running 24
Egypt: Hunting and Sporting Pharaohs 26
Royal Hunts as a Near Eastern Tradition 32
States and Sports, Empires and Spectacles 33
2 Late Bronze Age Minoans, Hittites, and Mycenaeans 37
Minoan Performances: Rites, Contests, or Spectacles? 37
Hittite Contests? 44
Mycenaean Contests? 46
A Sporting Mediterranean World 49
3 Sport in Homer: Contests, Prizes, and Honor 53
Homer and His World 54
Values and Competition 55
Prizes and Spectatorship 56
Funeral Games for Patroklos: Prizes and Reconciliation 56
The Odyssey: Sport and Returning Home 63
Epic Sport as Spectacle 67
4 Archaic Greece: Athletics in an Age of Change 70
Athletic Festivals: Types and Terms 72
Factors and Features in the Growth of Athletics 73
Gymnasiums, Hoplites, and Society 81
Nudity, Status, and Democracy 82
Men, Boys, and Erotic Pursuits 85
The Coming of Age of Greek Sport 87
5 In Search of the Ancient Olympics 91
The Olympics of Allusion and Illusion 92
Modern Myths and Invented Traditions 95
The Quagmire of Olympic Origins: Explanations and Excavations 97
6 Ancient Olympia and Its Games 107
The Physical Context: Sanctuary and Facilities 108
The Olympic Festival: Operation and Administration 111
The Program of Contests 114
Olympia and Spectacle: Politics, Problems, and Performances 123
7 Panhellenic Sacred Crown Games and More 132
Pythian Games 133
Isthmian Games 136
Nemean Games 138
Variations: Local or Civic Games 143
8 Athens: City of Contests and Prizes 147
The Panathenaic Games: Sacred and Civic Athletics 148
More Athletic Festivals and Athletic Facilities 159
The Sociopolitical History of Athenian Sport 161
Contestation, Critics, and Popular Attitudes 165
9 Spartan Sport and Physical Education 175
Problematic Evidence 176
Physical Education: Building the Body Politic 176
Spartan Athletics 181
Kyniska: Gender, Politics, and Racing Chariots at Olympia 184
Not So Strange Greeks 185
10 Athletes in Greek Society: Heroes, Motives, Access 190
Athletic Stars and Stories 191
Pindar on Victory and Glory 194
Athletes, Social History, and Democratization 197
The Lower Half of Society: Not Excluded But Not Competing? 202
Meritocratic Athletics in Practice 203
Conclusion 204
11 Females and Greek Sport 209
The Ancient Evidence: Problems and Perspectives 210
Early Greece: Epic and Myth 211
Spartan Female Sport 211
Athenian Girls' Races or Rites 212
The Heraia at Olympia 212
The Olympic Ban on Women 214
Hellenistic Females and Competition 215
Female Athletics in the Roman Empire 217
Conclusion: from Rites to Athletics 219
12 Macedon and Hellenistic Sport and Spectacle 222
Greeks and Persians 223
Philip II: Proclaiming Greekness through Games 224
Alexander The Great: Conquests and Spectacular Games 227
Hellenistic Sport and Spectacle 232
The Hellenistic Legacy 239
13 The Roman Republic: Festivals, Celebrations, and Games 243
Etruscan Sport and Spectacle: Ethnicity, Greek Gifts, Roman Roots? 244
Roman Festivals and Entertainments 247
Chariot Racing at Rome 248
Triumphs: Spectacles of Military Victory 249
Hunts and Beasts: Conquests and Games 253
Gladiators: Roman Rites and Combats 257
Early Romans and Greek Sport 261
Roman-Hellenistic Spectacular Discourse 263
14 Late Republic and Augustus: Spectacles, Popular Politics, and Empire 268
The Meaning of Gladiatorial Combat: Infamy and Virtue 269
Sulla, Pompey, and Caesar: Magnificence and Munificence 273
Augustus: Consolidation and Imperial Rule Through Shows 276
15 Spectacle, Sport, and the Roman Empire 289
Emperors, Spectacles, and Scandals 290
Days at the Track: Chariot Racing 292
Imperial Triumphs 297
Gladiators, Arenas, and Empire 298
Beast Hunts: Nature and Empire 309
Spectacular Executions: Criminals, Beasts, and Social Order 312
Greek Games in the Roman Empire 314
Professional Athletes: Guilds, Prizes, and Hadrian 319
Assimilation and Accommodation 322
16 Later Sports and Spectacles: Romans, Christians, and Byzantines 329
Christian Opposition to Pagan Spectacles 329
Roman Reactions to Christians 331
The Waning of Institutionalized Shows in the West 335
Chariot Racing in the Christian Byzantine Empire 338
Conclusion: Ancient Sport and Spectacle 343
Index 348
