This disentanglement is witnessed in the gradual relocation of the stadium out of the sacred Altis to its present eastern location outside the sanctuary, where boisterous crowds were also more easily managed and accommodated. Philosophers and other intellectuals, much like today, came to resent the great esteem and privilege offered to athletes, suggesting that true perfection came only with a balance of mind and body, but enthusiasm for sport and athletic glory continued to rise.
Through the Roman period , the athletic games at Olympia and elsewhere, and all that they entailed, became more and more like sporting events we might recognize today. Like today, officials and judges Hellanodikai had to be vigilant about corruption. In the end, however, Olympia was severely sacked by the Roman general Sulla in 80 BC, invaded by the marauding Heruli tribe in AD and finally succumbed to restrictions and closures imposed on pagan sanctuaries by the edicts of the emperors Theodosius I and II in the late 4th and early 5th centuries AD.
Powered by: Relevance Developed by: Stonewave. In Depth. Toggle navigation. Greece Is The Olympic Games. Visible are the altar of Demeter Chamyne, the reserved area for judges and the starting line. The Olympics were part of a religious event. They were held in honour of Zeus, the father of the gods and were a big celebration.
Click here to find out more on Ancient Olympics. Follow me on Twitter mbarrow. You may not redistribute, sell or place the content of this page on any other website or blog without written permission from the author Mandy Barrow. Ancient Greece by Mandy Barrow. Though it is often said that Greek cities began to support athletes in the early Hellenistic period, the evidence usually referred to, in fact, reveals the initiative of private individuals, and there is no reason to think that the athlete in question is poor.
We cannot gauge the extent of such private subsidies. In one instance, from Egypt, the athletes whose training is supported may be slaves — poor enough, but also outside the usual ambit of Greek festival competition. Young argues that poorer boys might win local events — natural ability would count for most at this age — and use their earnings to finance careers.
This view has won adherents, Nick Fisher among them. Yet few local games can have been as generous as the Panathenaea, itself on offer only every four years; other prizes we know of were paltry by comparison.
One indication: about BCE, a coach approached the city council of Ephesus for funds to help a young athlete train and make a festival trip. The boy had already won at least one victory — and yet, it seems, had not earned enough to compete abroad without help. Furthermore, local games with valuable prizes attracted entrants from afar. If we are to judge from the findspots of Panathenaic amphoras, many were won by outsiders.
Visiting victors included boys too: an inscription from the early second century BCE lists more foreign boys among champions at the Panathenaea than native Athenians. Among local competitors, better-off boys could afford more food and the private trainers Pindar praises. As for public trainers, paidotribai, the Athenian ephebate in which they played an important part is attested only from the later fourth century and may not have included the thetes, the poor majority of the population; its Hellenistic descendant was an unequivocally exclusive institution.
Young has certainly established the possibility of poorer athletes taking part in archaic and classical competition, but we cannot say that their involvement in any significant numbers was probable. The proportion of elite and other athletes at later periods is beyond our reach and likely to remain so. We know of many athletes whose careers were studded with distinctions — multiple citizenships, magistracies, priesthoods, service on embassies.
Do these testify to their origins among the elite for which such honours were usually reserved? Or are they the consequences of victory? We can rarely be sure. There can be no question about the elite status of those who joined athletic victories to success in equestrian competition such as Sosibius, a major figure at the Egyptian court and Aratus, the Achaean leader of the late third century BCE.
Family connections often offer a clue. The wrestler, Hermesianax, whose father and uncle contributed towards building a wall at Colophon about BCE, must have come from a family with means.
A series of inscriptions permits us to trace the progress of L. Septimius Flavianus Flavillianus of Oenoanda. This appears to follow the model put forward by Young: he enjoyed significant success at local festivals and went on to win five Panhellenic crowns before returning home for the Meleagria in the early third century of our era.
But, in fact, his was no rags to riches tale: his father was a regional official, his aunt, an aristocrat who proudly carved her family lineage onto her tomb. In a poor family, this portends a son who will rise in the ranks to command a military camp; among the rich, an emperor.
A third boy, from the moderate or middling class, will become a famous athlete. Understanding how the Ancient Greeks lived can give us unique insights into how Greek ideas continue to influence out own lives today. From artistry to politics, ancient Greece left a considerable impression on world history. Learn why Greek and Roman gods share so many similarities, how the alphabet got its name, and how the legacy of ancient Greece has evolved over thousands of years.
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