The word gymnasium is derived from gumnazo, meaning exercise, and gumnos, meaning naked or loin-clothed. The gymnasia were the ancient Greek equivalent of a sports centre, and several were located ...

No mere muscle shops, Greek gymnasia were state-sponsored institutions aimed at training young men to embody, literally, the highest ideals of Greek virtue.

Gymnasia as places of Greek culture and lifestyle were part of this Hellenistic cultural setting. Inscriptions and papyri had already witnessed the existence of gymnasia in the countryside of the ...

It was called hippika gymnasia, from the Greek ἱππικὰ γυμνάσια (chivalry exercises) and, like medieval tournaments, it had a show component and a skill component. It served for the riders to practice ...