Expanded Uses of the Greek Gymnasium

Abstract

NE of the most characteristic landmarks of the Greek city was the gymnasium.' We find it heading a list of the urban glories on which cities such as those that Aelius Aristides knew in Asia under the Empire prided themselves: gymnasia, fountains, propylaea, temples, craftsmen's shops, and schools.2 Another list of the typical features of the Greek city comes from Dio Chrysostom and includes agora, theater, gymnasium, and stoa.3 When the observant barbarian traveler, Anacharsis, visited Greece, he watched the athletic practices of the Greeks with astonishment and is reported to have said: In every city of the Greeks there is a designated place where they go mad daily. I mean the gymnasium.4 Despite Anacharsis' incredulity, the Greeks had no doubt that their persistent habit of erecting civic gymnasia was a wise step in the pursuit of happiness. Diodorus, in a legendary account5 of the colonization of Sardinia by a mixed group of Greeks and barbarians under the leadership of Iolaus, the