Over on my Forbes blog, I wrote about the messages behind athletic nudity from 720 BCE to the Rio Olympics. Ever since Orsippus stripped off that loincloth at the 15th Olympiad, there has been a message accompanying athletic nudity. As I explore, it is important to keep this in mind when evaluating the worth of the modern Olympics today. Where else can you appreciate such a spectrum of diverse, multi-national, strong, and often non-traditional body types?
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Published by sarahemilybond
I am an Associate Professor in the History Department at the University of Iowa. I am interested in Roman, late antique, and early medieval history, archaeology, topography and GIS, Digital Humanities, and the role of Classics in pop culture. I obtained a BA in Classics and History with a minor in Classical Archaeology from the University of Virginia (2005). My PhD is in Ancient History from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (2011). My book, Trade and Taboo: Disreputable Professionals in the Roman Mediterranean, is out now from University of Michigan Press (Fall, 2016) and looks at the lives of marginalized tradesmen like gravediggers and tanners. Follow me on Twitter @SarahEBond, read my Blog, or email me at sarah-bond@uiowa.edu.
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