Ancient Greek gymnasiums were disappearing from civic life under Roman rule, but evidence from 51 documented sites suggests that the education associated with them continued for generations. The evidence raises a question about where young men continued their lessons and public activities after traditional gymnasiums closed.
The 51 sites appear in a study by researcher Lavinia Del Basso of gymnasiums in the Roman province of Achaea. In a recent review published in the “Journal of Roman Archaeology,” Natalia Kazakidi of the Academy of Athens examines what the evidence reveals and where it falls short.
Gymnasiums were more than places to exercise. They helped prepare young men for civic life through physical, military, and intellectual training. Known as the ephebeia, this system remained active under Roman rule, but the mix of activities varied from one city to another.
How Greek education continued beyond ancient gymnasiums
Buildings had begun to fall out of use in some cities by the middle of the first century A.D. Abandonment became more widespread by the latter half of the second century. Yet inscriptions show the ephebeia continued into at least the third quarter of the third century.
Kazakidi asks: “Where were ephebic activities conducted once the buildings traditionally associated with them had ceased to function as gymnasia?” She suggests that some training may have moved into baths or other public spaces, but says the idea needs testing.
Del Basso notes that heated bathing facilities appeared in gymnasium settings from the first century A.D. Although Achaea did not develop the giant bath-gymnasium complexes known in Asia Minor, baths were sometimes built beside or over older gymnasiums.
At Sicyon, three similar altars honoring Hermes, Herakles and Apollo were found in baths. At Argos, inscriptions connected with officials who supervised gymnasiums turned up in bathing facilities. Such clues suggest that older activities or traditions could have survived in new buildings.
Roman families and sparse records complicate the picture
Roman involvement changed who took part. Del Basso discusses sons of Roman and Italian settlers joining the ephebeia, while emperor worship also entered gymnasium spaces. Some young men even enrolled outside their home cities, although the surviving evidence is limited.
The picture is incomplete. Many of the 51 gymnasiums are known only through inscriptions or written references, and relatively few have been excavated well enough to trace their history. At Athens’ Academy, researchers disagree about whether one excavated structure was a training ground or a sacred enclosure.
Periods of investment in gymnasium buildings under Augustus and later Hadrian further complicate any simple story of decline. For Kazakidi, the unanswered question is not only when the gymnasiums closed, but which parts of Greek civic education continued elsewhere.
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