SPORT IN GREECE AND ROME - H.A. HARRIS - 1972

This is a hard to obtain book in Australia and this is a great opportunity to pick up a copy at a very reasonable price!

Sport was as important in the Greek and Roman world as it is in our own society.  In Greece athletics were hallowed by centuries of tradition - the supremacy of the Olympic programme survived almost unchanged for over a thousand years.  The sport played an important Panhellenic role, and some kind of stadium was an inevitable feature of every city.  In Rome chariot-racing, developed into a passionately partisan affair in which highly-paid professionals became the spoilt darlings of near-hysterical crowds.

Professor Harris' highly entertaining study covers the entire range of sporting activity in Greece and Rome from the first Olympic Games in 776 BC to the Byzantine era.  Besides chariot-racing and athletics - including boxing, wrestling, foot-races, discus  and javelin-throwing and the jump - he discussed horse-racing, ball games, swimming, rowing, hoop-bowling and weight-lifting.  Techniques, rules and equipment are described as far as the evidence admits, but the author has scrupulously refrained from the wild guesses sometimes made in the past. The social setting and significance of sport at all periods is vividly demonstrated by quotations from contemporary literature, which highlight many striking parallels with the position of sport in our own day.  The lively illustrations come from a wide variety of sources and show aspects of sport and sportsmen throughout the period. 

This is an absorbing and comprehensive account in which any lover of sport will find much to interest him; and he may well be helped towards a fuller understanding of modern sport and its place in our lives. 

Illustrated with 83 photographs and 13 drawings this 288 page hardcover is in a very good, tight, clean condition with only some very light shelfwear to edges of dustjacket and original owner's name (which has been crossed out in biro) inside front cover.  A fascinating book!