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Gilbert West's Dissertation on the Olympick Games (1749): ‘Established upon great Political Views’
Author(s) -
ZEBROWSKI MARTHA K.
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
journal for eighteenth‐century studies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.129
H-Index - 11
eISSN - 1754-0208
pISSN - 1754-0194
DOI - 10.1111/j.1754-0208.2012.00499.x
Subject(s) - politics , narrative , institution , virtue , classics , ancient greek , literature , history , art , sociology , law , social science , political science
Gilbert West's Dissertation on the Olympick Games is the first modern history of the ancient games. The Dissertation incorporates a bibliographic essay, historical conjecture and narrative, and descriptions of the venue, athletes and events at Olympia. West considered the ancient games a political institution foremost, and demonstrated the importance of seeing the games as an elemental institution embedded in and revealing of the larger political culture of ancient Greece. With the Dissertation , West joined British Classical scholars, translators and literary figures who found in ancient Greek liberty, virtue and patriotic valour models for the British nation in the eighteenth century.