Synopses & Reviews
Greek athletics flourished more in the Roman empire than ever before. Jason König offers an exciting new cultural history of the athletics of this period, setting out neglected evidence for athletic festivals and athletic education. He also explores the way in which discussion of athletics, a highly controversial subject, could become entangled in wider debates in Greek and Roman culture.
Synopsis
Greek athletics flourished more in the Roman Empire than it ever had before. This book offers an exciting new cultural history of the athletics of that period, setting out neglected evidence for athletic festivals and athletic education. It offers new readings of a wide range of Greek and Latin authors.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction; 2. Lucian and Anacharsis: gymnasion education in the Greek city; 3. Models for virtue: Dio's Melankomas and the athletic body; 4. Pausanias and Olympic panhellenism; 5. Silius Italicus and the athletics of Rome; 6. Athletes and doctors: Galen's agonistic medicine; 7. Philostratus' Gymnasticus and the rhetoric of the athletic body; Conclusion.