This study comprises 117 pages of text followed by abbreviations, bibliography and indexes. The question it aims to answer, as stated on the back cover, is ‘were the ancient Olympics used, or abused, by the classical Greek city-states for purposes not strictly athletic or religious?’, or, put slightly differently in the opening paragraph, ‘did they use the ancient Olympics to project favourable images of themselves?’ (p. 9). The preface states that ‘This little book is addressed to classicists, of course, but also to non-classical scholars such as historians of modern sport and, in particular, to scholars studying the modern Olympics’ and also ‘journalists writing seriously on sport who want a historical perspective on their work’ (p. 7). The dual focus produces a number of insightful segments along with some less than fully convincing applications of contemporary terminology and preoccupations (‘sportwashing’, ‘surplus-value’, ‘soft power’ and, indeed, the use/abuse binarism) to the evidence for ancient athletic festivals and the Greek polis.

After a short overview of the ancient festivals, Chapter 1, ‘Elis and the Olympics’, offers a well-documented summary of the close association between Elis and the festival at Olympia, which was the city’s only claim to fame. A discussion of the role of Elis in organising the festival and the athletic competitions is followed by an account of the events leading up to and following the ‘politically motivated’ exclusion of the Spartans from the Olympic Games (pp. 26–9). Hints of criticism of Eleian judging are also discussed (pp. 29–32).

The following chapter, ‘The Other City-States and the Olympics’, builds upon the case of Elis, which ‘clearly did use the Olympics to further its own interests and to create soft power for itself’ (p. 33), and extends the survey to the other city-states. The construction of treasuries and the dedication of weapons and sculptures to Zeus come under scrutiny here, but more interesting is the discussion of the practice of poleis setting up inscriptions recording public enactments or treaties at Olympia (Sybaris is cited as a telling example, pp. 42–4). The proclamations of Cleisthenes of Sicyon in 572 bce and of Alexander the Great in 324 bce are also cited. Such displays, it is argued, would inevitably contribute to the greater glory of Elis itself (p. 53). This is true, but Olympia was a unique gathering place for the Greek-speaking world, the only location where one could be assured of a genuinely Panhellenic audience. N. refers more or less consistently throughout the book to the ‘modern Olympics’ and to the ‘ancient Olympics’ (presumably with his wider readership in mind), but this is something of a terminological slippage, since the Greeks referred to the ‘Olympia’ or the ‘Olympic festival’. That distinction is important, as N. indeed affirms when he refers in his concluding remarks to ‘the way sport was embedded in Greek religious culture’ (p. 115).

Chapter 3, ‘Individual Athletes at the Olympics’, demonstrates that, unlike competitors at the modern Olympic Games, Greek athletes were not ‘formal representatives’ of their polis. A coda adds that there were no team sports at Olympia. Here it would be useful to mention the team events at the Panathenaic festival in Athens (as it might also be on p. 68 when discussing prizes of tangible value); these are not discussed until the end of the book (p. 121). The chapter then runs through the quest for kleos and arete, the epinikians of Pindar and Bacchylides, and concludes that victory and its attendant glory constitute the goal of Greek athletic competition, noting that ‘they would probably not even have understood the idea that “the importance of the Olympiads lies not so much in winning as taking part” [quoting Pierre de Coubertin]’ (p. 65). Much of the material in this chapter will be familiar to classicists, but the passage quoted from Aeschines’ Against Ctesiphon 3.179 on the excessive generosity of the Athenians in bestowing honorific crowns on individuals unworthy of them is intriguing (p. 65) – especially in light of their practice of awarding prizes for second, third and lower places at the Panathenaea. The cases of the ‘transfer of allegiance’ from one polis to another and the saga of Kimon’s victories in the chariot race at Olympia in 536–528 are well elucidated (pp. 70–6).

Chapter 3 is the longest in the book. Depending on which of the book’s intended audiences one belongs to, the material will come across as largely familiar or unfamiliar. The final segments, ‘The Motivations of Olympic Athletes: Making Political Statements’ (pp. 92–8) and ‘Athletic Success and City-State Power – the Point of View of the Spectators’ (pp. 98–100), attempt to bring the interests of the book’s various intended readers more closely together. Readers will judge for themselves how convincing or enlightening the juxtapositions are, say, between high-profile political protests at the modern Olympics and disputes at Olympia, such as the ‘boycott’ by the polis of Lepreon (pp. 92–5). This incident is recounted in detail by N., as is the controversy surrounding the Olympic ‘recognition’ of Messene in the fourth century (pp. 97–8).

Chapter 4, ‘The City-States “at the Olympics”’, takes up the question of how far we should view athletes as ‘representatives’ of their city-states. It is proposed that the ‘city-ethnic’ (e.g. Thasios for the boxer Theagenes) ‘had (mutatis mutandis) a role resembling the national flag and anthem at modern victory ceremonies’ (p. 104). Ancient sources speaking of athletes ‘crowning’ or ‘heralding’ their polis could be adduced in support of this notion, even allowing for poetic licence or rhetorical flourishes (pp. 104–8). Similarly, rewards lavished by poleis on ‘their’ victors (pp. 108–13) and criticism of such rewards offer potentially corroborating evidence: Xenophanes frag. 2 [West] is an example (pp. 111–13).

The book concludes with ‘Outline of an Answer’ to the original question as to whether the Greek poleis used the Olympic festival to project favourable images of themselves (pp. 115–23). The language here is sensibly cautious and qualified: ‘The use and abuse of the ancient Olympics (i.e. for purposes that were not strictly athletic or religious) were a less pronounced aspect of the ancient than of the modern games, and this was in large measure due to the way sport was embedded in Greek religious culture’ (p. 115). The term ‘abuse’ is somewhat problematised here, finally, and one is inclined to wonder if ‘Use and Abuse of …’ was really the best title for the study. ‘Abuse’ in modern discourse about Olympic athletes does not seem comparable in meaningful ways to what occurred in the ancient setting. ‘Abuse’ is usually a matter of opinion, a judgement made by those who see the ‘use’ to which something is put as reprehensible or immoral; it is also culturally and historically specific. A similar disjunction arises with the terms ‘sportswashing’ and ‘soft power’ in the final segment (pp. 119–23). These concepts are so deeply embedded in a particular late twentieth- and early twenty-first-century discourse that their transposition to ancient Greece seems rather arbitrary and on occasion inappropriate. To give one example, ‘soft power’ was coined and promulgated as a concept by J. Nye in 1990, and his 2004 book is duly cited in the bibliography; as D. Kearn argued in 2011, however, ‘soft power is everywhere’ – yet sorely in need of sustained critical analysis (‘The Hard Truths about Soft Power’, Journal of Political Power 4 [2011], 65–85).

This book has several praiseworthy aspects – the scholarship on the Greek sources is sound, the ancient evidence is carefully marshalled and the juxtaposition of ancient with modern is thought-provoking. Reservations about the approach aside, it is a valuable addition to the long-standing Nikephoros series by an eminent scholar.