Sport, Democracy and War in Classical Athens (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9781107007338)

Athenian democracy may have opened up politics to every citizen, but it had no impact on participation in sport. The city's sportsmen continued to be drawn from the elite, and so it comes as a surprise that sport was very popular with non-elite citizens of the classical period, who rewarded victorious sportsmen lavishly and created an unrivalled program of local sporting festivals on which they spent staggering sums of money. They also shielded sportsmen from the public criticism which was otherwise normally directed towards the elite and its conspicuous activities. This book is a bold and novel exploration of this apparent contradiction, which examines three of the fundamental aspects of Athens in the classical period - democratic politics, public commitment to sport and constant warfare - and is essential reading for all of those who are interested in Greek sport, Athenian democracy and its waging of war.

Author: David M. Pritchard
ISBN-10: 110700733X
ISBN-13: 9781107007338
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Language: English
Published: 10/11/2012
Pages: 261
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.15lbs
Size: 9.10h x 6.00w x 1.00d