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This Fusion Of Militarism And Culture Continued To Rise With The Advent Of ...

This fusion of militarism and culture continued to rise with the advent of the Roman Empire a state conceived of almost solely via military conquest.
The Greek world was a complex mosaic of communities, often at war with each other or outside powers. In Rome, the focus is on a single state. From the earliest days, war was at the heart of the life of the Roman people. They fought wars almost every year. Annual rituals marked the opening and closing of the campaigning season. (Rich, 1993:1)
Moreover, unlike today, ancient warfare was conducted without the aid of industrial weaponry. Therefore, the skill of being able to defend oneself with one's fists was considered to be a particularly attractive attribute in both ancient Greece and ancient Rome. Indeed, being a skilled and able boxer was considered to be an ample substitute for a perceived lack of skills relating specifically to warfare, such as ability with a sword or a spear. As Michael Poliakoff (1995:113) declares, his [the soldier's] compensation is his boxing prowess, so vital to his identity that a match with a fellow soldier elicits his most violent jealousy for honour and recognition.
Thus, boxing became a substitute as well as an augmentation of warfare in the ancient world. In this way, generals were able to make sure that their soldiers were in a constant state of awareness for battle to the extent that they were made to fight against one another during lulls in the war so as to maintain vigilance in the art of fighting. In this way, boxing was a nonspecific as well as a specific sporting endeavour that had usage in a variety of different ways. It was the ultimate expression of masculinity. Indeed, manhood could not be said to have existed without recourse to blood and combat sports such as boxing, wrestling or pankration (an ancient Greek mode of martial art that was first introduced to the Olympic Games in 646 BC).
None of this, of course, is to state that the practice of boxing remained uniform throughout the period between Homer's Iliad and Virgil's Aeneid. There is a discernible evolution of boxing techniques and practices that occurred during the transition from the Greek to the Roman stage. The most obvious difference occurred with the himantes the pieces of cloth that were tied around the boxers' knuckles and wrists before he commenced the bout. In the Homeric era, the himantes would have been made of ox hide (not pigskin, as it left wounds that were particularly painful and slow to heal). This, in turn, meant that boxing matches tended to last longer in the Homeric era as the ‘soft' cloth that was placed around the boxer's wrists and knuckles curtailed too many excessively damaging injuries as a result of blows landed during the fight itself.


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