Greek Athletics in the Roman World
Victory and Virtue
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Oxford University Press
Published:6th Oct '05
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back
The enduring importance of Greek athletic training and competition during the period of the Roman Empire has been a neglected subject in past scholarship on the ancient world. This book examines the impact that Greek athletics had on the Roman world, approaching it through the plentiful surviving visual evidence, viewed against textual and epigraphic sources. It shows that the traditional picture of Roman hostility has been much exaggerated. Instead Greek athletics came to exercise a profound influence upon Roman spectacle and bathing culture. In the Greek east of the empire too, athletics continued to thrive, providing Greek cities with a crucial means of asserting their cultural identity while also accommodating Roman imperial power.
...a valuable contribution not only to the study of athletics but more importantly to our understanding of Greek cultural identity during the Empire * Andrew Erskine, Journal of Roman Studies *
a well-illustrated book * Christopher Barnard and Katherine Clarke, Greece and Rome *
particularly good on Greek athletics and the Western Empire * Glen Bowersock, Times Literary Supplement *
Convincing and extremely well-read, [Newby] establish[es] significant reinterpretations of later athletic history, art and literature...Essential for scholars of ancient literature, art and sport...tempting us with stimulating new approaches. * Donald G. Kyle, Classical Journal *
[a] solid work(s) of scholarship...remind(s) us of the hard and physical aspect of ancient culture, too often centred on warlike competitiveness. * Antiquity 80 *
ISBN: 9780199279302
Dimensions: 254mm x 196mm x 23mm
Weight: 849g
328 pages