Students will develop an understanding of the significance of 
sports, athletics, competition, and spectacle in Greek and Roman
culture from a variety of sources, including literature and
material culture from the ancient Mediterranean world and far
reaches of the Roman Empire.

Topics may include but are not limited to:

1. The Birth of Sports: Greek Bronze Age
2. Athletics and Competition in the Homeric Poems
3. The Olympic Games and Panhellenic Festivals
4. To the Victor Goes the Poem: Epinician Poetry 
5. Battle Ready: Physical Training at Sparta 
6. Contest of Words in Greek Rhetoric and Poetry
7. Sports and Competition in the Literature of the Roman 
Republic and Empire
8. Chariot Racing in the Roman Circus
9. The Colosseum: Gladiator Combats, Animal Hunts, and 
Execution Spectacles
10. Staged Naval Battles   
11. Christian Martyrdoms as Spectacle in the Roman World