Athletics and Literature in the Roman Empire [Hardcover]

Examination of Greek athletics in the Roman Empire and how they were represented in the literature of the period.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 evidence for athletic festivals and athletic education. It also explores the way in which discussion of athletics, a highly-controversial subject, could become entangled in wider debates in Greek and Roman culture. In doing so it overlaps between 'literary' and 'non-literary' texts and offers major new readings of a wide range of Greek and Latin authors.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 evidence for athletic festivals and athletic education. It also explores the way in which discussion of athletics, a highly-controversial subject, could become entangled in wider debates in Greek and Roman culture. In doing so it overlaps between 'literary' and 'non-literary' texts and offers major new readings of a wide range of Greek and Latin authors.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.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. ...Until this book no scholar has studied the body of literature relalSY