ATHLETIC SPORTS).
The earliest games recorded are those at the funeral of Pa troclus. Greek games were in their origin connected with re ligion; either, as here, a part of the funeral rites, or else insti tuted in honour of a god, or as a thank-offering. Each of the great contests was held near some shrine or sacred place and is associated with some deity or mythical hero. It was not before the 4th century that this honour was paid to a living man (see Plutarch, Lysander, 18) . The games of the Iliad and those of the Odyssey at the court of Alcinous show at what an early date the distinctive forms of Greek athletics—boxing, wrestling, put ting the weight, the foot and the chariot race—were determined.
The Olympian games were the earliest, and to the last they remained the most celebrated of the four national festivals. Olympia was a naturally enclosed spot in the plain of Elis. There was the grove of Altis, in which were ranged the statues of the victorious athletes, and the temple of Olympic Zeus with the chryselephantine statue of the god, the masterpiece of Pheidias. There Heracles (so ran the legend which Pindar has introduced in one of his finest odes), when he had conquered Elis and slain its king Augeas, consecrated a temenos and instituted games in honour of his victory. A later legend, which probably embodies historical fact, tells how, when Greece was torn by dissensions and ravaged by pestilence, Iphitus enquired of the oracle for help, and was bidden restore the games which had fallen into desuetude; and there was, in the time of Pausanias, suspended in the temple of Hera at Olympia, a bronze disc whereon were inscribed, with the regulations of the games, the names of Iphitus and Lycurgus. From this we may safely infer that the games were a primitive observance of the Eleians and Pisans, and first acquired their celebrity from the powerful concurrence of Sparta. The sacred armistice, or cessation of all hostilities during the month in which the games were to be held, is also credited to Iphitus.
In 776 B.C. the Eleians engraved the name of their countryman, Coroebus, as victor in the foot race, and thenceforward we have an almost unbroken list of the victors in each succeeding Olym piad or fourth recurrent year. For the next 5o years no names occur but those of Eleians or their next neighbours. After 720 B.C. we find Corinthians and Megareans, and later still, Athenians and extra-Peloponnesians. Thus what at first was nothing more than a village feast became a bond of union for all the branches of the Doric race, and grew in time to be the national festival. It survived even the extinction of Greek liberty, and had nearly completed 12 centuries when it was abolished by the decree of the Christian emperor, Theodosius, in the tenth year of his reign.
Let us attempt to call up the scene which Olympia in its palmy days must have presented as the great festival approached. Her alds had proclaimed throughout Greece the "truce of God." Those white tents belong to the Hellanodicae, or ten judges of the games, chosen one for each tribe of the Eleians. They have been here already ten months, receiving instruction in their duties. All, too, or most of the athletes must have arrived, for they have been undergoing the indispensable training in the gymnasium of the Altis. But along the "holy road" from the town of Elis a motley throng is crowding. Conspicuous in the long train are the Oewpof or sacred deputies, clad in their robes of office, and bear ing with them in their carriages of state, offerings to the shrine of the god. There is no lack of noted visitors. A feature of the mediaeval tournament and the modern racecourse is wanting. Women might indeed compete and win prizes as the owners of teams, but all except the priestesses of Demeter were forbidden, matrons on pain of death, to enter the enclosure.
At daybreak the athletes presented themselves in the Bouleu terium, where the judges were sitting, and proved by witnesses that they were of pure Hellenic descent, and had no stain, re ligious or civil, on their character. Laying their hands on the bleeding victim, they swore that they had duly qualified them selves by ten months' continuous training in the gymnasium, and that they would use no fraud or guile in the sacred contests. Thence they proceeded to the stadium, where they stripped to the skin and anointed themselves. A herald proclaimed, "Let the runners put their feet to the line," and called on the spectators to challenge any disqualified by blood or character. If no objec tion was made, they were started by the note of the trumpet, running in heats of four, ranged in places assigned by lot. The foot-race was only one of 24 Olympian contests which Pausanias enumerates, though we must not suppose that these were all ex hibited at any one festival. Till the 77th Olympiad all was con cluded in one day, but afterwards the feast was extended to five.
The order of the games is for the most part a matter of con jecture, but, roughly speaking, the historical order of their in stitution was followed. We will now describe in this order the most important.
(1) The Foot-race.—For the first 13 Olympiads the Sp6pos, or single lap of the stadium, which was 2ooyds. long, was the only contest. The 31.avXos, in which the course was traversed twice, was added in the 14th Olympiad, and in the 15th the SoXcxos, or long race, of 7, 12, or, according to the highest computation, 24 laps, about 21m. in length. We are told that the Spartan Ladas, after winning this race, dropped down dead at the goal. There was also, for a short time, a race in heavy armour, which Plato highly commends as a preparation for active service. (2) Wrestling was introduced in the 18th Olympiad. The importance attached to this exercise is shown by the very word palaestra, and Plutarch calls it the most artistic and cunning of athletic games. The practice differed little from that of modern times, save that the wrestler's limbs were anointed with oil and sprinkled with sand. The third throw, which decided the victory, passed into a proverb, and struggling on the ground, such as we see in the fa mous statue at Florence, was not allowed, at least at Olympia.
(3) In the same year was introduced the 7rEvra6Xov (pentath lon), a combination of the five games enumerated in the well known pentameter ascribed to Simonides : &XMa, iro&WKEfnv, SIvKOV, aKovra, it Xnv. Only the first of these calls for any comment. The only leap practised seems to have been the long jump. The leapers increased their momentum by means of pES or dumb-bells, which they swung in the act of leaping.
(4) The rules for boxing did not differ greatly from those of the modern ring (see PUGILISM), and the chief difference was in the use of the caestus. This, in Greek times, consisted of leather thongs bound round the boxer's fists and wrists; and the weight ing with lead or iron or metal studs, which made the caestus more like a "knuckle-duster" than a boxing-glove, was a later Roman development. The killing of an antagonist, unless proved to be accidental, not only disqualified for a prize, but was severely punished. The use of earguards and the comic allusions to broken ears, not noses, suggest that the Greek boxer did not hit out straight from the shoulder, but fought windmill fashion. In the pancratium, a combination of wrestling and boxing, the use of the caestus, and even of the clenched fist, was disallowed. (5) The chariot-race had its origin in the 23rd Olympiad. Of the hippo drome, or racecourse, no traces remain, but from the description of Pausanias we may infer that the dimensions were approximately i,600ft. by 400ft. Down the centre there ran a bank of earth, and at each end of this bank was a turning-post round which the chariots had to pass. "To shun the goal with rapid wheels" re quired both nerve and skill, and the charioteer played a more important part in the race than even the modern jockey. Pau sanias tells us that horses would shy as they passed the fatal spots. The places of the chariots were determined by lot, and there were elaborate arrangements for giving the drivers a fair start. The large outlay involved excluded all but rich competitors, and even kings and tyrants eagerly contested for the victory. Chariot-races with mules, with mares, with two horses in place of four, were successively introduced. Races on horseback date from the 33rd Olympiad. Lastly, there were athletic contests of a similar kind for boys, and a competition of heralds and trumpeters, introduced in the 93rd Olympiad.
The prizes were at first, as in the Homeric times, of some in trinsic value, but after the 6th Olympiad the only prize for each contest was a garland of wild olive. The successful athlete re ceived, in addition to the honours, very substantial rewards. A herald proclaimed his name, his parentage and his country; the Hellanodicae took from a table of ivory and gold the olive crown and placed it on his head, and in his hand a branch of palm ; as he marched in the sacred revel to the temple of Zeus, his friends and admirers showered in his path flowers and costly gifts, singing the old song of Archilochus,T- veXXa KaXM ice, and his name was can onized in the Greek calendar. Fresh honours and rewards awaited him on his return home. If he was an Athenian he re ceived, according to the law of Solon, 500 drachmae, and free rations for life in the Prytaneum ; if a Spartan, he had as his prerogative the post of honour in battle. Poets like Pindar, Si monides and Euripides sung his praises, and sculptors like Pheidias and Praxiteles were engaged by the State to carve his statue. And there were well-attested instances of altars being built and sacrifices offered to a successful athlete. An Olympian prize was regarded as the crown of human happiness. Cicero, with a Roman's contempt for Greek frivolity, observes with a sneer that an Olympian victor receives more honours than a tri umphant general at Rome, and tells the story of the Rhodian Diagoras, who, having himself won the prize at Olympia, and seen his two sons crowned on the same day, was addressed by a Laconian in these words :—"Die, Diagoras, for thou hast nothing short of divinity to desire." Alcibiades, when setting forth his services to the State, puts first his victory at Olympia, and the prestige he had won for Athens by his magnificent display.
The Pythian games originated in a local festival held at Delphi, anciently called Pytho, in honour of the Pythian Apollo, and were especially devoted to musical competitions. The date at which they became a Panhellenic S.ywv (so Demosthenes calls them) cannot be determined, but the Pythiads as a chronological era date from 527 B.C., by which time music had been added to all the Panhellenic contests. Now, too, these were held at the end of every fourth year; previously there had been an interval of eight years. The prize was a chaplet of laurel.
The Nemean games were biennial and date from 516 B.c. They were by origin an Argive festival in honour of Nemean Zeus, but in historical times were open to all Greece, and provided the es tablished round of contests, except that no mention is made of a chariot-race. A wreath of wild celery was the prize.
The Isthmian games, which were held on the Isthmus of Corinth in the first and third years of each Olympiad. Their early im portance is attested by the law of Solon which bestowed a reward of loo drachmae on every Athenian who gained a vic tory. The festival was managed by the Corinthians; and after the city was destroyed by Mummius (146 B.c.) the presidency passed to the Sicyonians until Julius Caesar rebuilt Corinth (46 B.c.). They probably continued to exist till Christianity became the religion of the Roman empire. The Athenians were closely connected with the festival, and had the privilege of proedria, the foremost seat at the games, while the Eleans were absolutely excluded from participation. The games included gymnastic, equestrian and musical contests. The prize was a crown, at one time of parsley (or wild celery) ; later of pine. The impor tance of the Isthmian games in later times is shown by the fact that Flamininus chose the occasion for proclaiming the libera tion of Greece, 196 B.c.
The Ludi Publici of the Romans, as in Greece, were intimately connected with religion. At the beginning of each civil year it was the duty of the consuls to vow to the gods games for the safety of the commonwealth, and the expenses were defrayed by the treasury. Thus, at no cost to themselves, the Roman public were enabled to indulge at the same time their religious feelings and their love of amusement. Their taste for games naturally grew till it became a passion, and under the empire games were looked upon by the mob as one of the two necessaries of life. The aediles who succeeded to this duty of the consuls were ex pected to supplement the State allowance from their private purse. Political adventurers were not slow to discover so ready a road to popularity, and what at first had been exclusively a State charge, was taken up by men of wealth and ambition. A victory over some barbarian horde, or the death of a relation, served as the pretext for a magnificent display. But the worst extravagance of private citizens was eclipsed by the reckless prodigality of the Caesars, who squandered the revenues of whole provinces in catering for the mob of idle sightseers on whose fa vour their throne depended. But though public games played as important a part in Roman as in Greek history, and must be studied by the Roman historian as an integral factor in social and political life, yet, regarded solely as exhibitions, they are comparatively devoid of interest.
It is easy to explain the different feelings which the games of Greece and of Rome excite. The Greeks, at their best, were actors, the Romans, from first to last, were spectators. It is true that even in Greek games the professional element played a large and ever-increasing part. As early as the 6th century B.C. Xenophanes complains that the wrestler's strength is preferred to the wisdom of the philosopher, and Euripides, in a well-known fragment, holds up to scorn the brawny, swaggering athlete. But, what in Greece was a perversion and acknowledged to be such, the Romans not only practised but held up as their ideal. No Greek, however high in birth, was ashamed to compete in person for the Olympic crown. The Roman, though little inferior in gymnastic exercises, kept strictly to the privacy of the palaestra; and for a patrician to appear in public as a charioteer is stigma tized by the satirist as a mark of shameless effrontery.
For the Roman world, the circus was at once a political club, a fashionable lounge, a rendezvous of gallantry, a betting ring, and a playground for the million. Juvenal, speaking loosely, says that in his day it held the whole of Rome ; but there is no reason to doubt the precise statement of P. Victor, that in the Circus Maximus there were seats for 3 50,00o spectators.
Of the various Ludi Circenses it may be enough here to give a short account of the most important, the Ludi Magni or Maximi.
Initiated, according to legend, by Tarquinius Priscus, the Ludi Magni were originally a votive feast to Capitoline Jupiter, prom ised by the general when he took the field, and performed on his return from the annual campaign. They thus presented the ap pearance of a military spectacle, or rather a review of the whole burgess force, which marched in solemn procession from the capitol to the forum and thence to the circus, which lay between the Palatine and Aventine. First came the sons of patricians, mounted on horseback, next the rest of the burghers ranged ac cording to their military classes, after them the athletes, naked save for the girdle round their loins, then the company of dancers with the harp and flute players, next the priestly colleges bearing censers and other sacred instruments, and lastly the simulacra of the gods, carried aloft or drawn in cars. The games themselves were f ourf old :—(1) the chariot race; (2) the ludus Troiae; (3) the military review; and (4) gymnastic contests. Of these only the first two call for any comment. (I) The chariot em ployed in the circus was the two-wheeled war car, at first drawn by two, afterwards by four, and more rarely by three horses. Originally only two chariots started for the prize, but under Caligula we read of as many as 24 heats run in the day, each of four chariots. The distance traversed was 14 times the length of the circus or nearly 5m. The drivers were divided into com panies, distinguished by colours, whence arose the factions of the circus which assumed such importance under the later emperors. In republican times there were two factions, the white and the red ; two more, the green and the blue, were added under the em pire, and for a short time in Domitian's reign, there were also the gold and the purple. Even in Juvenal's day party spirit ran so high that a defeat of the green was looked upon as a second Cannae. After the seat of empire had been transferred to Con stantinople these factions of the circus were made the basis of political cabals, which frequently resulted in sanguinary tumults, such as the famous Nika revolt (A.D. 532), in which 30,00o citi zens lost their lives. (2) The Ludus Troiae was a sham-fight on horseback, in which the actors were patrician youths. A descrip tion of it will be found in the 5th Aeneid. (See also CIRCUS.) The two exhibitions we shall next notice, though occasionally given in the circus, belong more properly to the amphitheatre. l'enatio was the baiting of wild animals, who were pitted against one another or against men—captives, criminals or trained hunt ers called bestiarii. The first certain instance on record of this amusement is in 186 B.C., when M. Fulvius exhibited lions and tigers in the arena. The taste for these brutalizing spectacles grew apace, and the most distant provinces were ransacked by generals and proconsuls to supply the arena with rare animals— giraffes, tigers and crocodiles. Sulla provided for a single show 100 lions, and Pompey 600 lions, besides elephants, which were matched with Gaetulian hunters. Julius Caesar enjoys the doubt ful honour of inventing the bull-fight. At the inauguration of the Colosseum 5,00o wild and 4,00o tame beasts were killed, and to commemorate Trajan's Dacian victories there was a butchery of I I ,000 beasts. The naumachia was a sea-fight, either in the arena, which was flooded for the occasion by a system of pipes and sluices, or on an artificial lake. The rival fleets were manned by prisoners of war or criminals, who often fought till one side was exterminated. In the sea-fight on Lake Fucinus, arranged by the emperor Claudius, 1 oo ships and 1 9,00o men were engaged.
But the special exhibition of the amphitheatre was the munus gladiatorium, which dates from the funeral games of Marcus and Decimus Brutus, given in honour of their father, 264 B.C. It was probably borrowed from Etruria, and a refinement on the com mon savage custom of slaughtering slaves or captives on the grave of a warrior or chieftain. Nothing so clearly brings before us the vein of coarseness and inhumanity running through the character of the Roman as his passion for gladiatorial shows. Only after the conquest of Greece we hear of their introduction into Athens, and they were then admitted rather out of compliment to the conquerors than from any love of the sport. In spite of numerous prohibitions from Constantine downwards, they con tinued to flourish even as late as St. Augustine. To a Christian martyr, if we may credit the story told by Theodoret and Cas siodorus, belongs the honour of their final abolition. In the year 404 Telemachus, a monk who had travelled from the East on this sacred mission, rushed into the arena and endeavoured to separate the combatants. He was instantly despatched by the praetor's orders; but Honorius, on hearing the report, issued an edict abolishing the games. (See GLADIATORS.) Of the other Roman games the briefest description must suf fice. The Ludi Apollinares were established in 212 B.C., and were annual after 211 B.C., consisting mainly of theatrical perform ances. The Megalenses were in honour of the great goddess, Cybele, instituted 204 B.C., and from 191 B.C. celebrated annually. Under the empire the festival assumed a more orgiastic charac ter. Four of Terence's plays were produced at these games. The Ludi Saeculares were celebrated at the beginning or end of each saeculum, a period variously interpreted by the Romans them selves as 1 oo or 110 years.
Under indoor games we may distinguish games of chance and games of skill. Tesserae, marked with pips like modern dice, were evolved from the tali, knuckle-bones with only four flat sides. The old Roman threw a hazard and called a main, just as did Charles Fox. The vice of gambling was lashed by Juvenal.
The primitive game of guessing the number of fingers simul taneously held up by the player and his opponent is still popular in Italy where it is known as "morra." Athena found the suitors of Penelope seated upon cowhides and playing at irEa roi, which was a form of draughts, an invention ascribed to Palamedes. In its earliest form it was played on a board with five lines and with five pieces. Later we find eleven lines, and a further development was the division of the board into squares.
Duodecim scripta, as the name implies, was played on a board with 12 double lines and approximated very closely to our back gammon. There were 15 pieces on each side, and the moves were determined by a throw of the dice ; "blots" might be taken, and the object of the player was to clear off all his own men. Lastly must be mentioned the Cottabus (q.v.), a game peculiar to the Greeks, and with them the usual accompaniment of a wine party. In its simplest form each guest threw what was left in his cup into a metal basin, and the success of the throw, determined partly by the sound of the wine in falling, was reckoned a divination of love. For the various elaborations of the game, Athenaeus and Pollux must be consulted.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.-Daremberg et Saglio, Dictionnaire des antiquites Bibliography.-Daremberg et Saglio, Dictionnaire des antiquites grecques et romaines, articles "Agon," "Athleta," "Circus," "Ludi," "Olympia," "Spiele" ; Curtius and Adler, Olympia (189o, etc.) ; K. Hachtmann, Olympia and seine Festspiele (1899) ; Hugo Blumner, Home Life of the Ancient Greeks (trans. 191o) ; J. P. Mahaffy, Old Greek Education (1881) ; P. Gardner and F. B. Jevons, Manual of Greek Antiquities (1898) ; E. N. Gardiner, Greek Athletic Sports (191o) ; Becker-Marquardt, Handbuch der romischen Altertiimer; W. W. Hyde, Olympic Victor Monuments and Greek Athletic Art (Wash ington, 1921) ; B. Schroeder, Der Sport im Altertum (Berlin, 1927) ; M. Berger and E. Moussat, Anthologie des textes sportifs de l'antiquite (Paris, 1927) . (F. S.)