Local heroes: athletics, festivals and elite self-fashioning in the Roman East

Abstract

Introduction A rather unremarkable statue base was set up some time under the reign of Gordian III in the entrance-passage of the agora of the Lycian city of Oinoanda. (a) ( on mouldings: ) (statue) of Poplios Sthenios Fronto, son of Likinnianos, by gift. (b) ( on the shaft ) When Ioulios Loukios Peilios Euarestos was the agonothete of the fifth panegyris […] Euaresteia which he himself founded with his own money, Poplios Sthenios Fronto, citizen of Oinoanda, son of Poplios Sthenios Likinnianos having been crowned in the men's pankration; open to all Lycians. (c) ( epigram ) First my Fatherland crowned me for the boys' wrestling and honoured me with a glorious statue in bronze; later, having carried off for my fatherland the men's pankration … The honorand was a member of a prominent local family, who had excelled as a heavy athlete all his life, and the base must have carried a statue of Fronto as a victorious athlete. It is obvious from this text that athletic victory was a crucial aspect in Fronto's self-image. But texts such as these suggest that there was more at stake than simple personal pride in athletic excellence: Fronto presents both his athletic victory, and the commemoration of this victory as his gifts to his fatherland. Success in an agonistic festival apparently had a social importance that went well beyond the interest of the individuals concerned.

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