Sport and Spectacle in the Ancient World

Donald G. Kyle is Professor and Chair of History at the University of Texas at Arlington. An award-winning teacher, he has been honoured by the University as a Distinguished Teaching Fellow. He has published Athletics in Ancient Athens (Revised Edition, 1993) and Spectacles of Death in Ancient Rome (1998) and co-edited Essays on Sport History and Sport Mythology (1990). He has appeared in History Channel shows on gladiators (1996) and crime in Rome (2005) and PBS and History Channel shows on the Ancient Olympics (2004).

List of Illustrations. List of Maps. Abbreviations. Preface and Acknowledgements. Introduction: Ancient Sport History. Why Sport History. Why Ancient Sport History. Word Games and Wars of Words: 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. Sport as History and History 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. Conclusions: States and Sports, Empires and Spectacles. 2. Late Bronze Age Minoans, Hittites and Mycenaeans. Minoan Performances: Rites, Contests or Spectacles. Hittite Contests. Mycenaean Contests. 3. Sport in Homer: Contests, Prizes, Heroes and Honor. Funeral Games for Patroklos: Prizes and Reconciliation. The Odyssey: Sport and Returning Home. 4. Archaic Greece: Athletic Festivals in an Age of Change. Factors and Features in the Growth of Archaic Athletics. Conclusion: The Coming of Age of Greek Sport. 5. In Search of the Real Ancient Olympics. The Olympics of Illusion and Allusion. Modern Myths and Invented Traditions. The Morass of Olympic Origins: Explanations and Excavations. 6. Ancient Olympic Games: Setting, Operation, Contests, and Spectacle. The Physical Context: Site, Sights and Facilities. The Olympic Athletic Festival: Operation and Administration. The Program of Contests. Olympia and Spectacle: Politics, Perfidy, Performance. 7. The Panhellenic Circuit of Sacred Crown Games. Pythian Games. Isthmian Games. Nemean Games. 8. Athens- City of Contests and Prizes. The Panathenaic Games: Sacred and Civic Athletics. Other Athletic Festivals [insert: Calendar of Festivals with Competitions]. Athletic Facilities. Politics, Patronage and Sport in Democratic Athens. Athenian Competitors and Competitors at Athens . Critics and Popular Attitudes. Fourth-Century and Proto-Hellenistic Trends. 9. Spartan Sport and Physical Education: Building the Body Politic. Spartan Physical Education and the State. Spartan Athletics. Kyniska and Spartan Chariot-Racing at Olympia. 10. Athletes: Myths, Motives, and Mobility. Athletic Stars and Stories. Victory and Glory: Pindaric Praise and Ideology. Athletes and Social History: Professionalism, Decline or Democratization. 11. Females and Greek Athletics. The Heraia and Girls Races in the Stadium at Olympia. Women at the Male Olympics. Virgin Olympic Spectators. 12. Macedon and Hellenistic Sport and Spectacle (to ca. 200 BC). Alexander the Great: Becoming Near Eastern through Spectacles. Hellenistic Sport and Spectacle. 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: Combats, Infamy and Virtue. Romans and Greek Sport. Hellenistic-Roman Spectacular Discourse. 14. Late Republic and Augustus: Spectacles, Popular Politics, and Empire. The Meaning of Gladiatorial Combat. Sulla, Pompey and Caesar: Magnificence and Munificence. Augustus: Unification and Imperial Rule through Spectacle and Sport. Augustus the Showman. Augustus the Ringmaster: Arena Reforms and Regulations. 15. Spectacle, Sport, and the Roman Empire (I). Days at the Races: Chariot Racing and the Roman Empire. Imperial Triumphs. Gladiators, Arenas and Empire. Beast Hunts: Nature and Empire. Spectacular Executions: Beasts and Social Order. Emperors, Spectacles, and Scandals. 16. Games and the Roman Empire (II). Greek Games: Imperial Acceptance and Patronage. Professional Athletics in the Empire. Ecumenical and Enduring Olympics. Agonistic Festivals and City Life in the Greek East. Twilight of the Games: Christians and Closure, or Dearth and Demise. Conclusion: Sport and/or/as Spectacle. Selected Bibliography. Index.