Olympic Victor Lists and Ancient Greek History

Olympic victor lists have been used individually as evidence in the study of ancient Greece, but have not so far been studied as a group and as a literary genre in their own right. This book does just that, revealing the importance of the lists as evidence of Greek structuring of time, and as one of the main sources of information in wide circulation in Ancient Greece. Many of the Olympionikai also contained brief notices of news and recent history, and give us a fascinating window on what information ordinary literate Greeks had access to concerning the world around them. They are of course also of interest for the details they supply about the Olympic Games themselves and the development of athletics in Ancient Greece. The appendices contain all of the extant fragments of victor lists.