Sport in Roman times: From cliché to historic and archaeological reality.

Abstract

The clichés relating to the Antiquity have a tendency to oppose the austere Roman peasant-soldier to the beautiful Greek athlete, and to present the Roman like a spectator, and not actually practicing a sport activity. By means of written documents, iconography and archaeological traces, this work wants to present an overview of so-called “sports” activities in Roman times, verify if their origins are truly Greek and see how “sport” was practiced in the Roman society.