Sport and Spectacle in the Ancient World

Donald G. Kyle is Professor, former Chair of History, and Distinguished Teaching Professor at the University of Texas at Arlington. He is the author of Athletics in Ancient Athens (1987), Spectacles of Death in Ancient Rome (1998), Sport and Spectacle in the Ancient World (Wiley-Blackwell 2007); and co-editor (with Paul Christesen) of A Companion to Sport and Spectacle in Greek and Roman Antiquity (Wiley-Blackwell 2014).

• Preface and Acknowledgments ixList of Figures xiiList of Maps xvList of Tables xviIntroduction: Ancient Sport History 1Why Sport History? 4Word Games: Conceptualizing Sport and Spectacle 7Challenges: Evidence, Chronology, and Modernism 9Sports and Spectacles as Cultural Performances 14Greece and Rome: Positive and Negative Classicism 15Sports as Spectacle, Spectacles as Sport 161 Origins and Essences: Early Sport and Spectacle 22Mesopotamian Combat Sports and Running 24Egypt: Hunting and Sporting Pharaohs 26Royal Hunts as a Near Eastern Tradition 32States and Sports, Empires and Spectacles 332 Late Bronze Age Minoans, Hittites, and Mycenaeans 37Minoan Performances: Rites, Contests, or Spectacles? 37Hittite Contests? 44Mycenaean Contests? 46A Sporting Mediterranean World 493 Sport in Homer: Contests, Prizes, and Honor 53Homer and His World 54Values and Competition 55Prizes and Spectatorship 56Funeral Games for Patroklos: Prizes and Reconciliation 56The Odyssey: Sport and Returning Home 63Epic Sport as Spectacle 674 Archaic Greece: Athletics in an Age of Change 70Athletic Festivals: Types and Terms 72Factors and Features in the Growth of Athletics 73Gymnasiums, Hoplites, and Society 81Nudity, Status, and Democracy 82Men, Boys, and Erotic Pursuits 85The Coming of Age of Greek Sport 875 In Search of the Ancient Olympics 91The Olympics of Allusion and Illusion 92Modern Myths and Invented Traditions 95The Quagmire of Olympic Origins: Explanations and Excavations 976 Ancient Olympia and Its Games 107The Physical Context: Sanctuary and Facilities 108The Olympic Festival: Operation and Administration 111The Program of Contests 114Olympia and Spectacle: Politics, Problems, and Performances 1237 Panhellenic Sacred Crown Games and More 132Pythian Games 133Isthmian Games 136Nemean Games 138Variations: Local or Civic Games 1438 Athens: City of Contests and Prizes 147The Panathenaic Games: Sacred and Civic Athletics 148More Athletic Festivals and Athletic Facilities 159The Sociopolitical History of Athenian Sport 161Contestation, Critics, and Popular Attitudes 1659 Spartan Sport and Physical Education 175Problematic Evidence 176Physical Education: Building the Body Politic 176Spartan Athletics 181Kyniska: Gender, Politics, and Racing Chariots at Olympia 184Not So Strange Greeks 18510 Athletes in Greek Society: Heroes, Motives, Access 190Athletic Stars and Stories 191Pindar on Victory and Glory 194Athletes, Social History, and Democratization 197The Lower Half of Society: Not Excluded But Not Competing? 202Meritocratic Athletics in Practice 203Conclusion 20411 Females and Greek Sport 209The Ancient Evidence: Problems and Perspectives 210Early Greece: Epic and Myth 211Spartan Female Sport 211Athenian Girls’ Races or Rites 212The Heraia at Olympia 212The Olympic Ban on Women 214Hellenistic Females and Competition 215Female Athletics in the Roman Empire 217Conclusion: from Rites to Athletics 21912 Macedon and Hellenistic Sport and Spectacle 222Greeks and Persians 223Philip II: Proclaiming Greekness through Games 224Alexander The Great: Conquests and Spectacular Games 227Hellenistic Sport and Spectacle 232The Hellenistic Legacy 23913 The Roman Republic: Festivals, Celebrations, and Games 243Etruscan Sport and Spectacle: Ethnicity, Greek Gifts, Roman Roots? 244Roman Festivals and Entertainments 247Chariot Racing at Rome 248Triumphs: Spectacles of Military Victory 249Hunts and Beasts: Conquests and Games 253Gladiators: Roman Rites and Combats 257Early Romans and Greek Sport 261Roman-Hellenistic Spectacular Discourse 26314 Late Republic and Augustus: Spectacles, Popular Politics, and Empire 268The Meaning of Gladiatorial Combat: Infamy and Virtue 269Sulla, Pompey, and Caesar: Magnificence and Munificence 273Augustus: Consolidation and Imperial Rule Through Shows 27615 Spectacle, Sport, and the Roman Empire 289Emperors, Spectacles, and Scandals 290Days at the Track: Chariot Racing 292Imperial Triumphs 297Gladiators, Arenas, and Empire 298Beast Hunts: Nature and Empire 309Spectacular Executions: Criminals, Beasts, and Social Order 312Greek Games in the Roman Empire 314Professional Athletes: Guilds, Prizes, and Hadrian 319Assimilation and Accommodation 32216 Later Sports and Spectacles: Romans, Christians, and Byzantines 329Christian Opposition to Pagan Spectacles 329Roman Reactions to Christians 331The Waning of Institutionalized Shows in the West 335Chariot Racing in the Christian Byzantine Empire 338Conclusion: Ancient Sport and Spectacle 343Index 348