Athletics of the ancient world / [Edward Norman Gardiner].

  • Edward Norman Gardiner
Date:
1930
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Athletics of the ancient world / [Edward Norman Gardiner]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    70/350 page 44
    Temple to the assembled crowds, among whom it was said was the youthful Thucydides. His example was followed by Hippias, Prodicus, and other Sophists. In the next century there arose the practice of erecting honorary statues, and those thus honoured included not only statesmen and generals but philosophers such as Aristotle and Anaximenes. These gatherings were natural opportunities too for trade, and the Olympic festival is described by Roman writers as the Olympic fair (.Mercatus Olympicus). These manifold interests tended gradually to rival the purely athletic interest. Indeed, from the middle of the fifth century the athletic interest begins to decline in Greece. A change was taking place in the character of athletics. Over-competition and the multiplication of prizes had made the conditions for success too strenuous and too exacting for the private citizen. So there arose a class of professional athletes, and though athletics formed part of the training of the Epheboi the people generally lost the athletic habit and grew content with the role of spectators. The decline of athletics was hastened by the incessant wars between them¬ selves which for more than a century distracted the city states of Greece. Yet the crowds that flocked to the festivals showed little diminution, and, though there was a falling off in the athletic com¬ petitions, as spectacles the festivals were perhaps more attractive than ever. Horse-breeding was the fashionable amusement of the wealthy, and from this time the number of chariot-races and horse¬ races increased. Ambitious politicians like Alcibiades and Dionysius of Syracuse sought to further their own ends and win popularity by the magnificence of their displays at Olympia. Others more patriotic sought to revive the spirit of national unity. It was at Olympia that Cxorgias appealed to the assembled crowds to forget their differences and to unite in a crusade against Persia, and his example was followed a few years later by Lysias and Isocrates. Indeed, the value of Olympia was never more clearly demonstrated than in this troublous time; there, in spite of athletic decline and corruption, was kept alive the feeling of Hellenic brotherhood. THE MACEDONIAN AGE The rise of Macedon threatened the independence of the city states, and it might have been expected that the athletic festivals would sink into insignificance. But the result was far otherwise. Philip and Alexander, like all who had sought to impose unity on
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