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The end of Greek athletics in late Antiquity / Sofie Remijsen.

By: Material type: TextTextSeries: Greek culture in the Roman worldDescription: xviii, 389 p. : ill., maps ; 23 cmISBN:
  • 1107050782 (hbk.)
  • 9781107050785 (hbk.) :
Subject(s): DDC classification:
  • 796.0938 23
LOC classification:
  • GV573 .R45 2015
Online resources:
Contents:
Contents: Introduction; Part I. An Overview of Athletics in Late Antiquity: 1. Greece; 2. Asia Minor; 3. Syria; 4. Egypt; 5. Italy; 6. Gaul; 7. North Africa; Conclusions to Part I; Part II. Agones in a Changing World: 8. A religious ban?; 9. An imperial ban?; 10. The athletic professionals; 11. Athletics as elite activity; 12. The practical organization of agones; 13. The agon as spectacle; Conclusions to Part II.
Dissertation note: Revision of the author's doctoral dissertation (Univ. of Leuven, 2011) Summary: "Around AD 250 athletics was a significant part of civic life from southern Gaul and northern Africa to Syria and Egypt. Within this broad area, exercising in the gymnasium was a beloved pastime among those members of ancient society who could afford to be (occasionally) at leisure. Hundreds of agones, contests for athletes and/or performing artists, were organized by almost as many cities. Though some of these competitions could look back on centuries-old traditions, most had been founded only a century or even a few decades before, as part of a phenomenon described by Louis Robert as the "agonistic explosion" of the imperial age"--
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Revision of the author's doctoral dissertation (Univ. of Leuven, 2011)

Includes bibliographical references (p. 349-377) and indexes.

Contents: Introduction; Part I. An Overview of Athletics in Late Antiquity: 1. Greece; 2. Asia Minor; 3. Syria; 4. Egypt; 5. Italy; 6. Gaul; 7. North Africa; Conclusions to Part I; Part II. Agones in a Changing World: 8. A religious ban?; 9. An imperial ban?; 10. The athletic professionals; 11. Athletics as elite activity; 12. The practical organization of agones; 13. The agon as spectacle; Conclusions to Part II.

"Around AD 250 athletics was a significant part of civic life from southern Gaul and northern Africa to Syria and Egypt. Within this broad area, exercising in the gymnasium was a beloved pastime among those members of ancient society who could afford to be (occasionally) at leisure. Hundreds of agones, contests for athletes and/or performing artists, were organized by almost as many cities. Though some of these competitions could look back on centuries-old traditions, most had been founded only a century or even a few decades before, as part of a phenomenon described by Louis Robert as the "agonistic explosion" of the imperial age"--