Concepts of Fairness in Sports in Ancient Greece, Rome and the Early Middle Ages and Their Connection to the World of Physical Education

The dominant perception of physical education in ancient Greece could be described as a holistic one, aimed at educating the well-rounded human. Therefore, it is not surprising that a clear notion of ethics was developed in their sports world, though the nature of sports activities itself was somewhat violent in accordance with the fact that it was primarily influenced by military needs. Still, it was always clear that those who took part in sport did so mostly out of their own free will.

On the other hand, the Romans abused the world of sport by turning it into a brutal circus as part of their famous `bread and circus` tactics to achieve crowd control. At the same time, they conducted a poor system of physical education without any particular spirit and without any extensive educational intentions. It was a purely instrumental system with the sole aim of supplying skilled fighters to the army.

The knights of the mediaeval era were the next activists in sport culture history, and even though they didn’t precisely imitate the Greek sport, one may argue that they were acting according to similar values, and a comprehensive approach to physical education, with the purpose of educating holistic humans in body and soul, was fairly connected to the sport world of their time. This was reflected in a system of tournaments that over time evolved to become controlled and managed events under clear rules, carefully imposed, in order to save lives and promote the health of the participants.