Campaign Agones: Towards a Classification of Greek Athletic Competitions

At several occasions during his campaigns, Alexander the Great staged gymnic, hippic and musical competitions. Until now scholars have assumed that the king founded new festivals, but the ancient evidence makes it quite clear that it were singular, non-recurrent events. Competitions like that, for which I suggest the term “campaign agones”, are also known from other Greek armies. “Campaign agones” should be added to the well-known categories (competitions at recurrent festivals, funeral contests, gymnasium agones) as a distinct, although less important, category in the Greek agonistic world.