Intro -- Sport and Spectacle in the Ancient World -- Copyright -- Contents -- Preface and Acknowledgments -- List of Figures -- List of Maps -- List of Tables -- Introduction: Ancient Sport History -- Why Sport History? -- Why ancient sport history? -- Word Games: Conceptualizing Sport and Spectacle -- Challenges: Evidence, Chronology, and Modernism -- Greek evidence -- Roman evidence -- Chronology: dates and cycles -- Reception and modernism -- Sports and Spectacles as Cultural Performances -- Greece and Rome: Positive and Negative Classicism -- Sports as Spectacle, Spectacles as Sport -- Notes -- References -- Chapter 1 Origins and Essences: Early Sport and Spectacle -- Hunting rituals and sport -- Agonism: the unique Greek? -- Mesopotamian Combat Sports and Running -- Egypt: Hunting and Sporting Pharaohs -- Evidence and imagery -- Sed festivals -- Beni Hasan and displays -- Sporting pharaohs of the New Kingdom -- Egyptian athletics? -- Egyptian hunting -- Royal Hunts as a Near Eastern Tradition -- States and Sports, Empires and Spectacles -- Notes -- References -- Chapter 2 Late Bronze Age Minoans, Hittites, and Mycenaeans -- Minoan Performances: Rites, Contests, or Spectacles? -- The boxer rhyton and runner's ring -- Bull sports -- Theseus and Crete -- Bull games abroad -- Hittite Contests? -- Mycenaean Contests? -- A Sporting Mediterranean World -- Notes -- References -- Chapter 3 Sport in Homer: Contests, Prizes, and Honor -- Homer and His World -- Values and Competition -- Prizes and Spectatorship -- Funeral Games for Patroklos: Prizes and Reconciliation -- Contests, winners, and losers -- The Odyssey: Sport and Returning Home -- Games in Phaiakia -- Iros -- The bow contest -- Epic Sport as Spectacle -- Notes -- References -- Chapter 4 Archaic Greece: Athletics in an Age of Change -- Athletic Festivals: Types and Terms.

Factors and Features in the Growth of Athletics -- Epic and Olympic authority -- Archaic games and city-state prizes -- Emerging city-states: regionalism and rivalry -- Colonization: a wider world of sport -- Tyrants: patronage and popular programs -- Gymnasiums, Hoplites, and Society -- Nudity, Status, and Democracy -- Men, Boys, and Erotic Pursuits -- The Coming of Age of Greek Sport -- Notes -- References -- Chapter 5 In Search of the Ancient Olympics -- The Olympics of Allusion and Illusion -- Coubertin as an Olympic hero -- Modern Myths and Invented Traditions -- The Quagmire of Olympic Origins: Explanations and Excavations -- Olympic mythography -- Modern theories -- Hippias and the Olympic Victor List -- Archaeological insights -- Deconstructing and reconstructing early Olympia -- Notes -- References -- Chapter 6 Ancient Olympia and Its Games -- The Physical Context: Sanctuary and Facilities -- The Olympic Festival: Operation and Administration -- Prize wreaths and nudity -- Eligibility -- The Program of Contests -- Footraces -- Pentathlon -- Combat sports -- Equestrian events -- Olympia and Spectacle: Politics, Problems, and Performances -- Peace, politics, and Panhellenism -- Opportunism and corruption -- Spectators, commercialism, and self-display -- Notes -- References -- Chapter 7 Panhellenic Sacred Crown Games and More -- Pythian Games -- The Program of contests -- Sanctuary and facilities -- Isthmian Games -- Nemean Games -- Myth, cult, and early history -- Politics and war -- Early Hellenistic building projects -- Patterns in panhellenic games -- Variations: Local or Civic Games -- Notes -- References -- Chapter 8 Athens: City of Contests and Prizes -- The Panathenaic Games: Sacred and Civic Athletics -- Panathenaic amphoras -- The Panathenaic program -- More Athletic Festivals and Athletic Facilities.

The Sociopolitical History of Athenian Sport -- Archaic Athens: politics and sport -- The tyranny and the Panathenaia -- Classical Athens -- Contestation, Critics, and Popular Attitudes -- The "anomaly" of mass support for athletics? -- Critics and criticisms -- Athens, Athenians, and athletics -- Proto-Hellenistic trends -- Notes -- References -- Chapter 9 Spartan Sport and Physical Education -- Problematic Evidence -- Physical Education: Building the Body Politic -- The male system -- Female physical education -- Spartan Athletics -- Spartans and Olympia -- Commemorating victories -- Kyniska: Gender, Politics, and Racing Chariots at Olympia -- Not So Strange Greeks -- Notes -- References -- Chapter 10 Athletes in Greek Society: Heroes, Motives, Access -- Athletic Stars and Stories -- Pindar on Victory and Glory -- Athletes, Social History, and Democratization -- The historiography of Greek athletes -- The Lower Half of Society: Not Excluded But Not Competing? -- Meritocratic Athletics in Practice -- Conclusion -- Notes -- References -- Chapter 11 Females and Greek Sport -- The Ancient Evidence: Problems and Perspectives -- Early Greece: Epic and Myth -- Spartan Female Sport -- Athenian Girls' Races or Rites -- The Heraia at Olympia -- The Olympic Ban on Women -- Hellenistic Females and Competition -- Female Athletics in the Roman Empire -- Conclusion: from Rites to Athletics -- Notes -- References -- Chapter 12 Macedon and Hellenistic Sport and Spectacle -- Greeks and Persians -- Philip II: Proclaiming Greekness through Games -- Alexander The Great: Conquests and Spectacular Games -- Alexander on athletics -- An eclectic policy on games -- Medism, symposia, and performances at court -- Alexander the imperial hunter -- Hellenistic Sport and Spectacle -- Gymnasia and ephebic training -- Athletic professionalism -- Ptolemaic Egypt: hybrid spectacles.

Hellenistic Olympia -- The Hellenistic Legacy -- Notes -- References -- Chapter 13 The Roman Republic: Festivals, Celebrations, and Games -- Etruscan Sport and Spectacle: Ethnicity, Greek Gifts, Roman Roots? -- Roman Festivals and Entertainments -- Chariot Racing at Rome -- Factions: Firms, teams, and fans -- Triumphs: Spectacles of Military Victory -- Triumphal grandeur and games -- Hunts and Beasts: Conquests and Games -- Early Rome: Animals, hunting, and spectacles -- Roman expansion: More lands, more beast shows -- Gladiators: Roman Rites and Combats -- Origins, exposure, and importation -- Cannae and the ideology of elevation -- Early Romans and Greek Sport -- Roman-Hellenistic Spectacular Discourse -- Notes -- References -- Chapter 14 Late Republic and Augustus: Spectacles, Popular Politics, and Empire -- The Meaning of Gladiatorial Combat: Infamy and Virtue -- Sulla, Pompey, and Caesar: Magnificence and Munificence -- Augustus: Consolidation and Imperial Rule Through Shows -- Augustus the showman -- Locations and facilities -- Elite performers, novelties, and oddities -- Greek entertainments -- Augustus and Herod of Judea -- The "First Citizen" (Princeps) as spectator -- Augustus and Virgil -- Augustus the ringmaster: Regulating the arena -- Augustus the games-master -- Notes -- References -- Chapter 15 Spectacle, Sport, and the Roman Empire -- An entertainment industry -- Emperors, Spectacles, and Scandals -- Days at the Track: Chariot Racing -- The imperial Circus Maximus -- Charioteers: driving Romans wild -- Spectators and factions -- Imperial Triumphs -- Gladiators, Arenas, and Empire -- Combats in the arena -- Gladiator bones and burials -- Volunteers, dilettantes, females, and eros -- The Colosseum: a purpose-built amphitheater -- Amphitheaters and adaptations beyond Rome -- Beast Hunts: Nature and Empire -- The traffic in beasts.

Games and game -- Spectacular Executions: Criminals, Beasts, and Social Order -- Greek Games in the Roman Empire -- Greek games at Rome -- The ecumenical and enduring Olympics -- Athletic festivals in the Greek East -- Professional Athletes: Guilds, Prizes, and Hadrian -- Athletes in the Roman Empire -- Guilds of athletes -- Hadrian's letters on athletics -- Assimilation and Accommodation -- Notes -- References -- Chapter 16 Later Sports and Spectacles:: Romans, Christians, and Byzantines -- Christian Opposition to Pagan Spectacles -- Non-dispassionate evidence -- Christian attitudes to shows: condemnation and abstention -- Roman Reactions to Christians -- Some famous martyrs -- Rome's failure: Christians spoil the show -- The Waning of Institutionalized Shows in the West -- Lingering Greek athletics -- Fewer gladiators -- Changing beast shows -- Chariot Racing in the Christian Byzantine Empire -- Notes -- References -- Conclusion: Ancient Sport and Spectacle -- Index -- End User License Agreement.

The second edition of Sport and Spectacle in the Ancient World updates Donald G. Kyle's award-winning introduction to this topic, covering the Ancient Near East up to the late Roman Empire. Challenges traditional scholarship on sport and spectacle in the Ancient World and debunks claims that there were no sports before the ancient Greeks Explores the cultural exchange of Greek sport and Roman spectacle and how each culture responded to the other's entertainment Features a new chapter on sport and spectacle during the Late Roman Empire, including Christian opposition to pagan games and the Roman response Covers topics including violence, professionalism in sport, class, gender and eroticism, and the relationship of spectacle to political structures.

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Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, 2018. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries.