Gymnasium (ancient Greece) in the context of "Roman world"

The Greco-Bactrian Kingdom (Greek: Βασιλεία τῆς Βακτριανῆς, romanized: Basileía tês Baktrianês, lit. 'Kingdom of Bactria') was a Greek kingdom during the Hellenistic period located in Central Asia and Afghanistan. The kingdom was founded by the Seleucid satrap Diodotus I Soter in about 256 BC, and continued to dominate Central Asia until its fall around 120 BC. At its peak the kingdom consisted of present-day Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, and for a short time, small parts of Kazakhstan, Pakistan, India and Iran. An extension further east, with military campaigns and settlements, may have reached the borders of the Qin State in China by about 230 BC.

A Greek population was already present in Bactria by the 5th century BC. Alexander the Great had conquered the region by 327 BC, founding many cities, most of them named Alexandria, and further settling Macedonians and other Greeks. After the death of Alexander, control of Bactria passed on to his general Seleucus I Nicator. The fertility and the prosperity of the region led to the creation of the Greco-Bactrian kingdom under Diodotus by the early 3rd century BC, as a successor state of the Seleucid Empire. The Bactrian Greeks grew increasingly more powerful and invaded north-western India between 190 and 180 BC under king Demetrius, the son of Euthydemus. This invasion led to the creation of the Indo-Greek kingdom, which in turn was a successor to the Greco-Bactrian kingdom, and was subsequently ruled by the kings Pantaleon and Apollodotus I. Historical records indicate that many rich and prosperous cities were present in the kingdom, but only a few of them have been excavated, such as Ai-Khanoum and Bactra. The city of Ai-Khanoum, in north-eastern Afghanistan, had all the hallmarks of a true Hellenistic city with a Greek theater, gymnasium and some houses with colonnaded courtyards.

The Apollo Lyceus (Greek: Ἀπόλλων Λύκειος, Apollōn Lukeios) type, also known as Lycean Apollo, originating with Praxiteles and known from many full-size statue and figurine copies as well as from 1st century BCE Athenian coinage, is a statue type of Apollo showing the god resting on a support (a tree trunk or tripod), his right forearm touching the top of his head and his hair fixed in braids on the top of a head in a haircut typical of childhood. It is called "Lycean" not after Lycia itself, but after its identification with a lost work described, though not attributed to a sculptor, by Lucian as being on show in the Lyceum, one of the gymnasia of Athens. According to Lucian, the god leaning on a support with his bow in his left hand and his right resting on his head is shown "as if resting after long effort." Its main exemplar is the Apollino in Florence or Apollo Medici, in the Uffizi, Florence.

The attribution, based on the type's "elongated proportions, elegant pose and somewhat effeminate anatomy", as Brunilde Sismondo Ridgway characterised it, is traditionally supported on the grounds of the type's similarity to Praxiteles's Hermes from Olympia – one replica of the Lycian Apollo even passed as a copy of the Hermes for a time. The comparison essentially rests on the Apollino, whose head has proportions similar to those of the Aphrodite of Cnidus and whose pronounced sfumato confirms the long-held idea that it is Praxitelean in style, in spite of the many differences among the extant examples.

Education for Greek people was vastly "democratized" in the 5th century B.C., influenced by the Sophists, Plato, and Isocrates. Later, in the Hellenistic period of Ancient Greece, education in a gymn school was considered essential for participation in Greek culture. The value of physical education to the ancient Greeks and Romans has been historically unique. There were two forms of education in ancient Greece: formal and informal. Formal education was attained through attendance to a public school or was provided by a hired tutor. Informal education was provided by an unpaid teacher and occurred in a non-public setting. Education was an essential component of a person's identity.

Formal Greek education was primarily for males and non-slaves. In some poleis, laws were passed to prohibit the education of slaves. The Spartans also taught music and dance, but with the purpose of enhancing their maneuverability as soldiers.

The Discobolus by Myron ("discus thrower", Greek: Δισκοβόλος, Diskobólos) is an ancient Greek sculpture completed at the start of the Classical period in around 460–450 BC that depicts an ancient Greek athlete throwing a discus. Though the original Greek bronze cast is lost, the work is known through numerous Roman copies, both full-scale ones in marble, which is cheaper than bronze, such as the Palombara Discobolus, the first to be recovered, and smaller scaled versions in bronze.

A norm in Ancient Greek athletics, the Discobolus is presented nude. His pose appears unnatural to a human and is considered as per modern standards a rather inefficient way to throw the discus.

A palaestra (/pəˈliːstrə/ or /-ˈlaɪ-/; or palestra; Ancient Greek: παλαίστρα) was any site of a Greek wrestling school in antiquity. Events requiring little space, such as boxing and wrestling, occurred there. Palaistrai functioned both independently and as a part of public gymnasia; a palaestra could exist without a gymnasium, but no gymnasium existed without a palaestra.