Historic Evolution of Tourism
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These movements are differentiated by their purpose of other types of travel originated by wars, migratory movements or conquest, but tourism has many historical antecedents.
Ancient Age Tourism: Greece
In 776 BC, the first Olympic Games were held, which consisted of athletic competitions in honor of the gods of Olympus. Artistic and athletic offerings were offered as a gift.Many times sacrifices and prayers were also performed in honor of some god in particular.
Although lesser known, the Pitios, Ismios and Nemeos festivals were also celebrated. These celebrations mobilized a large number of people, who of course, needed transportation and roads to travel. The roads system was very similar to that of the Persians and they usually traveled on foot or by donkey.os Ismios y los Nemeos.
Greece had a network of inns that only offered a bed for the night. They did not have dining rooms or bathrooms
It is also known that in each city public baths were built, open to everyone, where tourists of that time had to bring their own towels. They took off their clothes and kept them in special lockers, and then a slave took care of the hygiene with jars of hot and cold water.
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Acropolis & Pyramids
Pilgrimages to the different temples of Greece and to the oracles were very common, the most important one was that of Apollo in Delphi and among the most visited sanctuaries is the one of Esculapio, god of medicine.
The Greek lands also offered medicinal baths, seaside resorts, theater festivals and the opportunity to see monuments such as the Acropolis of Athens, which from the fifth century BC became one of the most visited sites in the world ancient along with the pyramids of Egypt. These were two of the seven wonders of the ancient world.
The Greeks visited other regions, such as Egypt. In most cases these visits were for military or trade matters, although it is known that the pyramids attracted many tourists.
Proxenos
In ancient Greece there were offices called proxenos. Here foreigners were received (it is remembered that foreigners did not have any kind of rights because of their status as non-citizens) who had problems finding transportation to return to their city or country. They could also need lodging, or even a loan to continue their trip. Many times the managers of these almost consular offices, arranged with merchants passages in boat where the tourists could take their own servants, offering them food and drink.
Slaves & Tourism
In classical Greece free men gave great importance to leisure, and devoted it to culture, entertainment, religion and sport. We must remember that all these activities could only be done by free men of the upper class or the Nobles. Many slaves were also available at that time. Approximately seven slaves for each free man. It is for this reason that tourism was an exclusive activity of wealthy class that moved with servants, slaves and a considerable guard for protection. The tourist activity that was not religious or to attend the Olympic games was scarce.
Tourism in the Roman Empire
All Roads Lead to Rome
Tourism: Only the Upper Class
Non-Religious Tourism
They also hired local guides and consulted papyri that explained a certain area and their entertainment possibilities. They were the tour guides of that time. Of course they bought something smaller as souvenirs and had a tendency to engrave the traveler’s name on the stones of the monuments they visited. This was at the request of the inhabitants, since the prestige of a noble visitor attracted more tourists.
The trips were made for pleasure, business or health or religious issues. Religious tourism and pilgrimages to both Greek and Roman temples became part of almost every tourist itinerary. But it was not about devotion but about entertainment. These temples were visited by tourists who in some cases were no longer sacred places, but monuments to visit. (almost equal to what happens today in the Catholic churches of Europe)
Weekend Roman Villas: Capri & Pompeii
The Romans also liked to spend a leisure time away from the city and used to move to the coast of Campania (now Naples). From the time of the empire of Octavius Augustus, the Senate was no longer an institution of power (the emperor reigned and were not consulted). The senators retired to live in the countryside, near Rome but away from it. The area chosen was Campania, Cities such as Pompeii, Herculaneum, Tivoli, Beneventum and Islands such as Capri, where luxury villas were built. Infrastructure was also built as additional roads, ports, passenger ships, inns and markets.
The houses in the city of Rome became the second residence and the country villa the habitual residence. You find the infrastructure was also built in those compestres places. Amphitheatres (Pompeii), circus maxima, thermal baths and medicinal baths. all this thanks to the pax romana that lasted approximately 250 years from the reign of Octavius Augustus.
Emperor Caracalla built in Rome the baths that bear his name. They were public baths that had steam rooms, pools of hot water (caldarium) and cold (frigidarium), gymnastics, rest and massage rooms. There were also writing rooms, libraries and gardens.
On the island of Capri, the Tiberian emperor built a luxurious villa with a swimming pool. You can still visit today’s day
Amphitheaters for all
The construction of the Maximum Circus and the Colosseum in Rome, led to tourism also going in the other direction. Inhabitants of the entire empire wished to know Rome. The network of roads, security and the pax romana contributed to a very important flow of tourists to the capital of the empire. They also built amphitheatres like the Colosseum in Rome and theaters in other cities, which also enjoyed a fair share of tourists. We can name the theater of Orange (France) and the amphitheaters of Nimes and Arles (France) that can be visited nowadays and in a very good state of conservation.
My Darling, and if We Visit Esparta?
During the Roman domination in Greece, the city of Sparta, powerful and famous in other times became a focus of tourism on the part of the Roman upper class. Sparta no longer had possibilities of any kind, military or economic or political, but focused on their ancestral military education to young people. The education of the It was so hard that it became a tourist attraction in itself
The ritual combats that had traditionally been fought in the shrine of Artemis Ortia, under Roman domination, became the dimastígosis (they existed for a long time) , where the children were scourged and sometimes even death. Also the Romans had a deep curiosity to discover how a city so feared in its time, I am reduced to a town of goat herders and a circus military education.
Cicero tells in the Tusculanas (II 34) how Spartan education and its excesses had become a spectacle that attracted tourists: the crowd that comes to the show is so numerous that it was necessary to build an amphitheater in front of the temple to welcome it. This show attracted tourists until the fourth century of our era, as well as documented by Libanio in his Discourses, (I, 23).
End of the first part : Tourism in Ancient Greece and Rome
