Athletic Competition
The Discus-Thrower
The Romans, not long afterward, developed a rather different kind of athletic entertainment. By around 300 BC, the Romans would gather around to watch two armed men and women fight each other to the death for entertainment. These men and women were called gladiators (sword-men), and their fights were called games (ludi). These people were sometimes slaves, who were forced to fight, and sometimes poor men and women who were being paid to fight. Nobody is sure how gladiatorial games got started. They may have had something to do with funerals at first. The Romans also, like the Greeks, encouraged chariot-racing as a spectator sport, and also men and women fighting bears or other animals.
In the Islamic Empire, gladiatorial games and chariot-racing went out of fashion, although men continued to fight animals as entertainment. Women did not fight in the Islamic Empire either. Less deadly team sports now came more into style, particularly polo, which was also taken over by the Eastern Roman Empire and by people in China.
In medieval Europe, as in the Islamic Empire, bear-fights and bull-fights continued, but gladiatorial fights and chariot-racing stopped. Horse-racing replaced chariot-racing, and knights fought each other for prizes in tournaments. Again, women were not allowed to compete.
To find out more about ancient athletics and racing, check out these books from Amazon.com or from your library:
The Ancient Greek Olympics, by Richard Woff (2000). For kids, from Oxford University Press.
Sport and Society in Ancient Greece, by Mark Golden (P. A. Cartledge and Peter Garnsey are series editors)(1998). Mark Golden's an entertaining writer, and this book is a good general introduction, although not specifically for kids.
You Wouldn't Want to Be a Roman Gladiator!, by John Malam and others (2001). It's a good series, funny but with lots of accurate facts. Some of it's a little grosser than I find attractive, though. There's another one, You Wouldn't Want to Be a Greek Athlete: Races You'd Rather Not Run, if you like this one.
Medieval Jousts and Tournaments, by John Green (1998). Pictures for kids.
