ABSTRACT
It is not possible within the space of a single chapter to give an adequate account of physical education and recreation throughout the Roman Empire. This empire spanned many centuries in time and, in space, stretched from Scotland to the Sahara Desert and from the Atlantic Ocean to the Caspian Sea. It embraced the tribal societies of Gaul and Britain, the city states of Greece and the ancient monarchy of Egypt. Generalizations on physical culture would be as meaningless as generalizations on the physical culture of the British Commonwealth. The differences between the physical education of the English Public Schoolboy and the African tribesman to-day had their parallels in the Roman Empire of yesterday and, in spite of unifying influences such as the Roman Army, the differences remained so acute that any general account of Roman physical education must reach formidable dimensions.
