ABSTRACT
The relationship of sport and the city can be traced back to ancient times. Historians initiated such studies with descriptions of sport in the Greek city-states, though many focused more intently on the Olympic Games, which tied religion to sport. As early as 1910 E. Norman Gardiner published Greek Athletic Sports and Festivals, followed by the works of H.A. Harris, which covered both Greece and Rome. Such idealistic descriptive narratives, though valuable in establishing a small foothold for sports history, paled in comparison to the more erudite academic examinations of the latter 20th century, especially in the works of Donald Kyle, David Sansone, David Young, Hugh Lee, Thomas Scanlon, and Stephen Miller. The latter scholars, influenced by the new social history and its interdisciplinary approaches, affected more nuanced analyses of the relationships between sport, religion, gender, politics, and community. Michael Poliakoff’s Combat Sports in the Ancient World compared developments throughout the Mediterranean region, and Jean-Paul Thuillier’s Sport im antiken Rom briefly examines urban stadiums. German historians, such as Wolfgang Decker, have expanded the study of ancient sport to Egypt. Decker has also served as editor of Nikephoros, an annual journal of ancient sport. Karl Lennartz has also painstakingly detailed the modern version of the Games and their civic locations have added much to the historical knowledge base and corrected the factual errors of the early works.1
