LOST ANCIENT SPORTS

Professor Peter J Miller discusses which ancient sporting traditions have continued into our modern world and which have been lost to time

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Over the centuries, many sports have come and gone. What ancient sports have survived to the modern day?

Many ancient Greek sports have survived to the present day; in fact, most of the sports that made up the Panhellenic festivals (the Olympics, Pythian Games, Isthmian Games and Nemean Games) are still practised, though the specifics may have changed. The ancient Greeks, for example, ran footraces of various distances: the stadion (one length of the stadium, or around 200 metres), the diaulos (two lengths of the stadium) and the dolichos (anywhere from eight to 24 lengths of the stadium). Two of the so-called combat sports, wrestling and boxing, remain popular and have long histories in the modern era. Ancient Greek boxing is similar to modern boxing, except the ancient Greeks did not wear gloves or any head protection. Moreover, the match had no rounds or weight classes - boxers had to look to wear out their opponent, whom they defeated when he submitted or was unable to continue. The sports of the ancient Greek pentathlon are a notable case in continuity into the modern period. The pentathlon was made up of the three field sports (discus, javelin and jump) along with running and wrestling; the field sports were never staged as separate events. The winner of the competition was the first to win three events. Despite the end of antiquity, many of these sports never stopped being staged.

The Roman Empire came to largely dominate the Greeks, absorbing many aspects of their culture. Were there any sports or sporting traditions they did not adopt?