Il soldato e l'atleta: Guerra e sport nella Grecia antica by Paola Angeli Bernardini

Abstract

412 PHOENIX War in Ancient Greece”) similarly looks at women’s participation in civic life, especially in times of warfare, in both mythological and historical examples. She suggests that the best model of interpretation for their actions is not that of inversion, but of cooperation: war is an event which involves both men and women, in complementary ways. Payen extends this argument in a different direction, noting that the standard claim that women are noncombatants because they are not citizens is only a partial truth. Rather, men are involved in formal battle lines (in which there is the possibility of glory), and women are included in forms of defensive warfare (i.e., when things become more desperate). Sebillotte Cuchet’s contribution treats women warriors in Caria, as part of a larger exploration of the “historicity” of some of our sources. In a typical hermeneutic circle, narratives in which women are said to take part in battle are usually interpreted as being less historical than those in which they do not because women are not warriors. Archaeological evidence provides a way out of this circle, as does careful reexamination of historical examples, stripping away the lens of Athenian (polarizing) interpretation. So too, on the Roman side, Hallett on Fulvia, who is first fictionalized and then demonized, provides a model. Hallett uses contemporary sources to show that Fulvia’s military involvement was seen as part of a larger, unfeminine pattern of behaviour, including sexual self-assertiveness à la the elegiac puella, which (some, but not all) the sources find deeply problematic. Stéphane Benoist (“Women and Imperium in Rome: Imperial Perspectives”) examines Roman women who were associated with rulership in various ways over a long sweep of centuries: from the passages in which women are described as dux to imperial women in their various roles as mothers of emperors and of the army. Essentially, the sources struggle with presenting power as legitimate for women, even when they do not find it threatening. Finally, Henriette Harich-Schwarzbauer (“The Feminine Side of War in Claudian’s Epics”) looks at how Stilicho’s idealized wife Serena and personified virtues such as Roma are triangulated with eunuchs, who take the traditional feminine place of the Other along with more negative personifications. It is difficult to summarize a volume as varied as this one. Suffice it to say that it offers a thorough examination of the status quaestionis and that I anticipate that it will receive a variety of responses, expansions, collaborations, and the like. The editors are to be commended for gathering together such a solid collection of thought-provoking work. Florida State University Laurel Fulkerson Il soldato e l'atleta: Guerra e sport nella Grecia antica. By Paola Angeli Bernardini. Bologna: Il Mulino. 2016. Pp. 270, 11 figs. Over a hundred years ago, E. N. Gardiner introduced Greek Athletic Sports and Festivals with reflections on the practical character of Greek athletics as a preparation for war: “Every citizen was a soldier, physical fitness was a necessity to him, and his athletic exercises were admirably calculated to produce this fitness.”1 The links between sport and war have been the subject of a number of more recent works in English as well.2 1 E. N. Gardiner, Greek Athletic Sports and Festivals (London 1910) 1. 2 N. B. Reed, More than Just a Game: The Military Nature of Greek Athletic Contests (Chicago 1998); N. B. Crowther, “Athlete as Warrior in the Ancient Greek Games: Some Reflections,” Nikephoros BOOK REVIEWS/COMPTES RENDUS 413 Now Paola Angeli Bernardini, well known for her work on sport, myth, and early Greek poetry, has applied her deep learning and sensitivity to literary texts to what she regards as something new (7–8): a systematic investigation of the relations between the soldier and the athlete down to the end of the Peloponnesian War. It is during the archaic period that these links are strongest, as is shown by Sparta’s domination of the Olympics while it was embroiled in its wars with the Messenians. Certainly Angeli Bernardini covers a lot of ground, laid out in an introduction and five chapters: “A Possible Comparison”; “The Competition’s...