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Gymnasia in postclassical Greece : change, continuity and the built environment
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Evans, Matthew Parry (2022) Gymnasia in postclassical Greece : change, continuity and the built environment. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.
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Official URL: http://webcat.warwick.ac.uk/record=b3927797
Abstract
This thesis investigates processes of change and continuity in the built environment of gymnasia in postclassical Greece (323 BCE onwards; mainland and Cycladic islands). It argues that an in-depth and diachronic analysis of three individual gymnasia elucidates the local dynamics of civic space in poleis and sanctuaries, teasing out its social, political and cultural significance at key moments in the history of Hellenistic and Roman Greece.
Chapter 2 focuses on the gymnasion complex of Amphipolis, aiming to better understand its role in society and the impact of socio-political shifts on civic space in the polis. Chapter 3 turns to late-Hellenistic Delos, revealing how the gymnasion complex perpetuated Athenian political power, brought together an increasingly cosmopolitan society and upheld Hellenic practices. Chapter 4 examines the gymnasion complex at the Sanctuary of Zeus at Olympia: it aims to redefine our knowledge of Olympia in the Hellenistic and Imperial periods as well as the social role of Panhellenic sanctuaries. Chapter 5 synthesises the main findings from the case study sites and compares these with other examples; this addresses the wider social role of gymnasia, their political significance and the degree of cultural influences in the built environment. Chapter 6 looks beyond gymnasia to other types of urban and religious space, revealing what gymnasia specifically offered communities in postclassical Greece.
The thesis addresses the complex interrelationships between civic space and local socio-political conditions. It sheds new light on the ways in which gymnasia shaped and were shaped by society, how political narratives were encoded into their built environment, and the extent to which they were impacted by the multi-scalar power shifts of Hellenistic Kingdoms and the growing Roman Empire. Overall, the thesis reveals how a careful combination of change and continuity in these factors permitted gymnasia as spaces and institutions their central position in various communities throughout the postclassical period in mainland and insular Greece.
Item Type: | Thesis (PhD) | ||||
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Subjects: | D History General and Old World > DF Greece | ||||
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Gymnasiums -- Greece -- History, Civilization, Classical, Greece -- History -- 323-1453, Greece -- Civilization -- 323-1453, Civic centers -- Greece -- History -- 323-1453 | ||||
Official Date: | December 2022 | ||||
Dates: |
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Institution: | University of Warwick | ||||
Theses Department: | Department of Classics and Ancient History | ||||
Thesis Type: | PhD | ||||
Publication Status: | Unpublished | ||||
Supervisor(s)/Advisor: | Scott, Michael, 1981- ; Newby, Zahra | ||||
Sponsors: | University of Warwick. Department of Classics and Ancient History | ||||
Format of File: | |||||
Extent: | 2 volumes (multiple pagings) : illustrations, maps | ||||
Language: | eng |
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