ENGLISH

The End of Greek Athletics in Late Antiquity

By Sofie Remijsen

Book information

Publisher
Cambridge University Press
Year
2015
ISBN
1107050782, 9781107050785
Language
english
Format
PDF
Filesize
8 MB (8257473 bytes)
Series
Greek Culture in the Roman World
Pages
xviii+390\409
Topic
History
Orientation
yes
Paginated
yes
Scanned
portrait
Time added
2015-11-08 14:09:17
Ancient Civilizations Assyria Babylonia Sumer Azte

Description

This book presents the first comprehensive study of how and why athletic contests, a characteristic aspect of Greek culture for over a millennium, disappeared in late antiquity. In contrast to previous discussions, which focus on the ancient Olympics, the end of the most famous games is analysed here in the context of the collapse of the entire international agonistic circuit, which encompassed several hundred contests. The first part of the book describes this collapse by means of a detailed analysis of the fourth- and fifth-century history of the athletic games in each region of the Mediterranean: Greece, Asia Minor, Syria, Egypt, Italy, Gaul and northern Africa. The second half continues by explaining these developments, challenging traditional theories (especially the ban by the Christian emperor Theodosius I) and discussing in detail both the late antique socio-economic context and the late antique perceptions of athletics.

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