A comprehensive study traces the development of Greek athletics from Homeric times through the classical, Hellenistic, and Roman periods up to the late fourth century A.D., examining the rise of public festivals, the Olympic and other great games, and trends such as professionalization and decline. The second part presents technical analyses of venues and events—stadia, the foot-race, jump with halteres, discus and javelin, pentathlon, wrestling, boxing, pankration, chariot-racing, gymnasium and palaestra—drawing on archaeological finds and iconography to reconstruct practices and to consider the cultural role of physical training in education and civic life.