Sport in the Ancient World

Today's olympic games give athletes a chance to show off their strength, toughness, and skill in the same ways the games in the ancient world did. In addition, winning continues to give athletes status, money and admiration from the spectators like it did in both ancient Greece and ancient Rome. However according to Guttman, the olympic games in ancient Greece were "sacred festivals, integral aspects of religious life" (4). These games were played in respect to the Gods and was a festival involving religion, prayer, sacrifice, skill, and entertainment. The games were so important to greek culture that even war was put on hold until the ending ceremony where winning athletes were showered in wealth. In the video it explained that in the beginning the sprint was the only game athletes could participate in. However, over time they added sports like wrestling, javelin, disk throwing, and chariot racing. Only men could participate in these sports but it allowed for any man, regardless of status, to participate. This openness to compete allowed for men living in poverty to have a chance at wealth if they could win an event. Women were not permitted to watch the games and if they violated that rule they were punished by being thrown off a cliff. The athletes spent months training and sculpting their bodies to portray the gods in which the games were played for. Since the gods were depicted as nude, the men competing would compete completely naked allowing for a more even playing field. Winning the games brought status, economic wealth and respect in the community while the losers were forgotten about completely. 

In ancient Rome the games differed slightly. Instead of a compilation of different games resembling the olympic games we have today, they focused on a game that had more of a combative undertone. According to Coakley, "Roman leaders using physical contests and games to train soldiers and provide mass entertainment spectacles" (63). These games were known as the gladiator games, where men fought until the death in a colosseum of a mass amount of spectators. According to the video, a training school was built next to the colosseum that housed and trained fighters for the eventual battle. In line with normal combat,gladiators learned how to use weapons, like the double edged sword, and fought their opponent wearing amour on their face but leaving the body exposed. The gladiators who competed ranged from slaves, to criminals, to prisoners of war who were kept locked up and beaten as part of their training/punishment. By winning the games they earned not only stardom but also their freedom. In addition to prisoners who fight, some elite killer also participate in the game. These games provided social punishment for criminal and war prisoner and also provided entertainment to Roman elites.