Summary
This paper investigates the Athenian gymnasiarchy, an office that remains badly understood. Originally a festival liturgy, the gymnasiarchy was transformed into a magistracy at the end of the fourth century BC. This paper first examines the reasons for the shift and argues that it was connected to broader political currents in late Classical Athens. Secondly, it sheds new light on the nature of the office in the Hellenistic period. Whereas earlier scholars assumed that the Athenian gymnasiarch was a minor official under the kosmetes, epigraphic and literary sources reveal that he was a fully-fledged gymnasium director, just as in other poleis.
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Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Gertrud Dietze-Mager, Hans Hauben and my colleagues of the ancient history research group at Ghent University for their careful reading of the manuscript and for their valuable feedback and suggestions. Any errors remaining are my own.
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