It is a fitting circumstance that this book should have been produced under the auspices of Professor Percy Gardner, seeing that he was unconsciously the originator of it. My interest in the subject was first aroused by the chapter on Olympia in his _New Chapters from Greek History_, which I read on my return from a cruise in the “Argonaut,” in the course of which I had visited Olympia. Professor Percy Gardner has read the book both in manuscript and in proof, and many improvements are due to his suggestions. He is, however, in no wise responsible for the views expressed, much less for any errors which I may have committed. E. NORMAN GARDINER. EPSOM COLLEGE, SURREY. CONTENTS List of Illustrations xv List of Commonest Abbreviations xxv PART I A HISTORY OF GREEK ATHLETICS AND ATHLETIC FESTIVALS FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES TO 393 A.D. 1. Introductory 1 2. Athletics in Homer 8 3. The Rise of the Athletic Festival 27 4. The Age of Athletic Festivals, Sixth Century 62 B.C. 5. The Age of the Athletic Ideal, 500-440 B.C. 86 6. Professionalism and Specialization, 440-338 122 B.C. 7. The Decline of Athletics, 338-146 B.C. 146 8. Athletics under the Romans 163 9. The Olympic Festival 194 10. The Pythian, Isthmian, and Nemean Festivals 208 11. The Athletic Festivals of Athens 227 PART II THE ATHLETIC EXERCISES OF THE GREEKS 12. The Stadium 251 13. The Foot-Race 270 14. The Jump and Halteres 295 15. Throwing the Diskos 313 16. Throwing the Javelin 338 17. The Pentathlon 359 18. Wrestling 372 19. Boxing 402 20. The Pankration 435 21. The Hippodrome 451 22. The Gymnasium and the Palaestra 467 BIBLIOGRAPHY 511 INDEX 519 INDEX OF GREEK WORDS 531 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 1. Boxer on steatite pyxis. Cnossus. (_B.S.A._ 10 vii. p. 95) 2. Armed combat on Clazomenae. Sarcophagus in 21 British Museum. (Murray, _Sarcophagi in B.M._, Pls. ii., iii.)