ABSTRACT
Long a venerable but lesser part of the study of sports history, ancient sports history has matured into a thriving sub-discipline in Ancient History and Classics. Highlighting selected recent works in English but noting some major non-English scholarship, this chapter outlines the development and approaches of ancient sports history, and it surveys ages and issues from early to Greek and Roman times. I follow the usual emphasis on Greek athletics, but, consistent with recent trends and my own arguments for sport and spectacle as overlapping phenomena, I also discuss Roman physical contests and spectacles.1
