HEROD  ATTICUS       103 AD

                   THE FIRST  " SPONSOR "

 Preface

 Sponsors and sponsorship today is a very important act which supports almost totally 
commercial, artistic, intellectual, athetic and a 
number of ventures.

It has become possibly the ultimate financial
power that sustains all the above mentioned.

But, when, did it begin? where? how? and who
started it??

Today we will take a journey to the deep past and
examine the official History that points no other
place than the Ancient Greece.

                          PART  ONE

Sponsorship was first established in Ancient Greece. Wealthy Athenians participated in the 
expenses of the state and contributed financially
to the athletic and cultural events, thereby earning social recognition in return.

The country, in acknowledgement of their contri-
bution, had their names carved in marble stones,
so that the rest of the population could learn 
about their generosity and pay due respect.

The inception of sponsorship dates from the time
of the Athenian democracy of Cleisthenes, at the
end of the 6th century B.C..  However, it fully 
"bloomed" in the 5th century B.C. the Golden 
Age of Pericles.  It was an era when thought,
literature, and the arts reached their highest 
expression.

Sponsorship was, at the start, quite specific in its
field of application, concerned exclusively with 
the financial support of the arts ( choragus= leader of the chorus),  Yet over the years, and 
especially today, the concept of sponsorship has
expanded to cover every form of financial contri-
bution to any sector of society, while it also includes commercial sponsorship,  that is, promotion, agreements with profit- making Orga-
nisations ( from: Sponsorship by Thalis P. Kou-
toupis, Galaiou Publications, 1996).

  We shall continue with  PART TWO , in a few days.

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by:EVI MARTYN
founder of HELLENIC CULTURE ADVOCACY