Sport, Democracy and War in Classical Athens

Sport, Democracy and War in Classical Athens
Author: David Pritchard
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 265
Release: 2013
Genre: History
ISBN: 110700733X

This book explains why the democracy of classical Athens generously sponsored elite sport and idolised its sporting victors.

Athenian Democracy at War

Athenian Democracy at War
Author: David Pritchard
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 313
Release: 2019
Genre: History
ISBN: 1108422918

Studies all four branches of the Athenian armed forces to show how they helped make democratic Athens a superpower.

Sport and Democracy in the Ancient and Modern Worlds

Sport and Democracy in the Ancient and Modern Worlds
Author: Paul Christesen
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 329
Release: 2012-10-15
Genre: History
ISBN: 1139576798

This book explores the relationship between sport and democratization. Drawing on sociological and historical methodologies, it provides a framework for understanding how sport affects the level of egalitarianism in the society in which it is played. The author distinguishes between horizontal sport, which embodies and fosters egalitarian relations, and vertical sport, which embodies and fosters hierarchical relations. Christesen also differentiates between societies in which sport is played and watched on a mass scale and those in which it is an ancillary activity. Using ancient Greece and nineteenth-century Britain as case studies, Christesen analyzes how these variables interact and finds that horizontal mass sport has the capacity to both promote and inhibit democratization at a societal level. He concludes that horizontal mass sport tends to reinforce and extend democratization.

War, Democracy and Culture in Classical Athens

War, Democracy and Culture in Classical Athens
Author: David Pritchard
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 479
Release: 2010-12-23
Genre: History
ISBN: 0521190339

Analyses how the democracy of the classical Athenians revolutionized military practices and underwrote their unprecedented commitment to war-making.

Origins of Democracy in Ancient Greece

Origins of Democracy in Ancient Greece
Author: Kurt A. Raaflaub
Publisher: Univ of California Press
Total Pages: 257
Release: 2007
Genre: History
ISBN: 0520258096

"A balanced, high-quality analysis of the developing nature of Athenian political society and its relationship to 'democracy' as a timeless concept."—Mark Munn, author of The School of History

Classical Athens and the Delphic Oracle

Classical Athens and the Delphic Oracle
Author: Hugh Bowden
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 212
Release: 2005-05-05
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780521823739

The Delphic Oracle was where, according to Greek tradition, Apollo would speak through his priestesses. This work explores the importance placed on consultations at Delphi by Athenians in the city's age of democracy. It demonstrates the extent to which concern to do the will of the gods affected Athenian politics, challenging the notion that Athenian democracy may be seen as a model for modern secular democratic constitutions. All the known consultations of the oracle by Athens in the period before 300 BC are examined, and descriptions of consultations found in Attic tragedy and comedy are discussed. This work provides a new account of how the Delphic oracle functioned and presents a thorough analysis of the relationship between the Athenians and the oracle, making it essential reading both for students of the oracle itself and of Athenian democracy.

Lords of the Sea

Lords of the Sea
Author: John R. Hale
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 436
Release: 2009
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780670020805

Presents a history of the epic battles, the indomitable ships, and the men--from extraordinary leaders to seductive rogues--who established Athens' supremacy, taking readers on a tour of the far-flung expeditions and detailing the legacy of a forgotten maritime empire.

Sport in the Cultures of the Ancient World

Sport in the Cultures of the Ancient World
Author: Zinon Papakonstantinou
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 249
Release: 2013-09-13
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 131798949X

Sport has been practised in the Greco-Roman world at least since the second millennium BC. It was socially integrated and was practised in the context of ceremonial performances, physical education and established local and international competitions including, most famously, the Olympic Games. In recent years, the continuous re-assessment of old and new evidence in conjunction with the development of new methodological perspectives have created the need for a fresh examination of central aspects of ancient sport in a single volume. This book fills that gap in ancient sport scholarship. When did the ancient Olympics begin? How is sport depicted in the work of the fifth-century historian Herodotus? What was the association between sport and war in fifth- and fourth-century BC Athens? What were the social and political implications of the practice of Greek-style sport in third-century BC Ptolemaic Egypt? How were Roman gladiatorial shows perceived and transformed in the Greek-speaking east? And what were the conditions of sport participation by boys and girls in ancient Rome? These are some of the questions that this book, written by an international cast of distinguished scholars on ancient sport, attempts to answer. Covering a wide chronological and geographical scope (ancient Mediterranean from the early first millennium BC to fourth century AD), individual articles re-examine old and new evidence, and offer stimulating, original interpretations of key aspects of ancient sport in its political, military, cultural, social, ceremonial and ideological setting. This book was previously published as a special issue of the International Journal of the History of Sport.

Athens on Trial

Athens on Trial
Author: Jennifer T. Roberts
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 426
Release: 2011-10-23
Genre: History
ISBN: 1400821320

The Classical Athenians were the first to articulate and implement the notion that ordinary citizens of no particular affluence or education could make responsible political decisions. For this reason, reactions to Athenian democracy have long provided a prime Rorschach test for political thought. Whether praising Athens's government as the legitimizing ancestor of modern democracies or condemning it as mob rule, commentators throughout history have revealed much about their own notions of politics and society. In this book, Jennifer Roberts charts responses to Athenian democracy from Athens itself through the twentieth century, exploring a debate that touches upon historiography, ethics, political science, anthropology, sociology, philosophy, gender studies, and educational theory.