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Introduction : ancient sport history
Why sport history?
Word games : conceptualizing sport and spectacle
Challenges : evidence, chronology, and modernism
Sports and spectacles as cultural performances
Greece and Rome : positive and negative classicism
Sports as spectacles, spectacles as sport
1. Origins and essences : early sport and spectacle
Mesopotamian combat sports and running
Egypt : from hunting to sporting pharaohs
Royal hunts as a Near Eastern tradition
States and sports, empires and spectacles
2. Late Bronze Age Minoans, Hittites, and Mycenaeans
Minoan performances : rites, contests or spectacles?
Hittite contests?
Mycenaean contests?
A sporting Mediterranean world
3. Sport in Homer : contests, prizes, and honor
Funeral games for Patroklos : prizes and reconciliation
The Odyssey : sport and returning home
Epic sport as spectacle
4. Archaic Greece : athletics in an age of change
Factors in the growth of athletics
Nudity, democracy, and Eros
Funeral games and city-state prizes
The coming of age of Greek sport
5. In search of the Ancient Olympics
The Olympics of illusion and allusion
Modern myths and invented traditions
The quagmire of Olympic origins : explanations and excavations
6. Ancient Olympia and its games
The physical context : sanctuary and facilities
The Olympic festival : operation and administration
The program of contests
Olympia and spectacle : politics, problems, and performances
7. Panhellenic sacred crown games
Pythian games
Isthmian games
Nemean games
Panhellenic variations and more
8. Athens : city of contests and prizes
The Panathenaic games : sacred and civic athletics
Other athletic festivals
Athletic facilities
Politics, patronage, and sport
Athenian athletes and athletes at Athens
Critics and popular attitudes
9. Spartan sport and physical education
Physical education : building the body politic
Spartan athletics
Kyniska and spartan chariot racing at Olympia
Not so strange Greeks
10. Greek athletes : myths, motives, and mobility
Athletic stars and stories
Pindar on victory and glory
Athletes and social history
Democratization and athletics
11. Females and Greek athletics
Girls' races and the Heraia
Women at the male Olympics?
Virgin Olympic spectators?
12. Macedon and Hellenistic sport and spectacle
Philip II : Proclaiming Greekness through games
Alexander the Great : becoming Near Eastern through spectacles
Hellenistic sport and spectacle
The Hellenistic model
13. The Roman republic : festivals, celebrations, and games
Etruscan sport and spectacle : Greek gifts and Roman roots?
Roman festivals and entertainments
Chariot racing at Rome
Triumphs : spectacles of military victory
Hunts and beasts : conquests and games
Gladiators : rites and combats
Romans and Greek sport
Roman-Hellenistic spectacular discourse
14. Late republic and Augustus : spectacles, politics, and empire
The meaning of gladiatorial combat : infamy and virtue
Sulla, Pompey, and Caesar : magnificence and munificence
Augustus : unification and imperial rule through shows
15. Spectacle, sport, and the Roman Empire
Emperors, spectacles, and scandals
Days at the track : chariot racing
Imperial triumphs
Gladiators, arenas, and empire
Beast hunts : nature and empire
Spectacular executions : beasts, criminals, and social order
Greek games in the Roman Empire
Assimilation and accommodation
Conclusion : ancient sport and spectacle.
Why sport history?
Word games : conceptualizing sport and spectacle
Challenges : evidence, chronology, and modernism
Sports and spectacles as cultural performances
Greece and Rome : positive and negative classicism
Sports as spectacles, spectacles as sport
1. Origins and essences : early sport and spectacle
Mesopotamian combat sports and running
Egypt : from hunting to sporting pharaohs
Royal hunts as a Near Eastern tradition
States and sports, empires and spectacles
2. Late Bronze Age Minoans, Hittites, and Mycenaeans
Minoan performances : rites, contests or spectacles?
Hittite contests?
Mycenaean contests?
A sporting Mediterranean world
3. Sport in Homer : contests, prizes, and honor
Funeral games for Patroklos : prizes and reconciliation
The Odyssey : sport and returning home
Epic sport as spectacle
4. Archaic Greece : athletics in an age of change
Factors in the growth of athletics
Nudity, democracy, and Eros
Funeral games and city-state prizes
The coming of age of Greek sport
5. In search of the Ancient Olympics
The Olympics of illusion and allusion
Modern myths and invented traditions
The quagmire of Olympic origins : explanations and excavations
6. Ancient Olympia and its games
The physical context : sanctuary and facilities
The Olympic festival : operation and administration
The program of contests
Olympia and spectacle : politics, problems, and performances
7. Panhellenic sacred crown games
Pythian games
Isthmian games
Nemean games
Panhellenic variations and more
8. Athens : city of contests and prizes
The Panathenaic games : sacred and civic athletics
Other athletic festivals
Athletic facilities
Politics, patronage, and sport
Athenian athletes and athletes at Athens
Critics and popular attitudes
9. Spartan sport and physical education
Physical education : building the body politic
Spartan athletics
Kyniska and spartan chariot racing at Olympia
Not so strange Greeks
10. Greek athletes : myths, motives, and mobility
Athletic stars and stories
Pindar on victory and glory
Athletes and social history
Democratization and athletics
11. Females and Greek athletics
Girls' races and the Heraia
Women at the male Olympics?
Virgin Olympic spectators?
12. Macedon and Hellenistic sport and spectacle
Philip II : Proclaiming Greekness through games
Alexander the Great : becoming Near Eastern through spectacles
Hellenistic sport and spectacle
The Hellenistic model
13. The Roman republic : festivals, celebrations, and games
Etruscan sport and spectacle : Greek gifts and Roman roots?
Roman festivals and entertainments
Chariot racing at Rome
Triumphs : spectacles of military victory
Hunts and beasts : conquests and games
Gladiators : rites and combats
Romans and Greek sport
Roman-Hellenistic spectacular discourse
14. Late republic and Augustus : spectacles, politics, and empire
The meaning of gladiatorial combat : infamy and virtue
Sulla, Pompey, and Caesar : magnificence and munificence
Augustus : unification and imperial rule through shows
15. Spectacle, sport, and the Roman Empire
Emperors, spectacles, and scandals
Days at the track : chariot racing
Imperial triumphs
Gladiators, arenas, and empire
Beast hunts : nature and empire
Spectacular executions : beasts, criminals, and social order
Greek games in the Roman Empire
Assimilation and accommodation
Conclusion : ancient sport and spectacle.