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BOOK THREE,
DEALING WITH THE
PRIZE AND CROWN OF THE VICTORY
OF THE OLYMPIC GAMES.
CHAPTER ONE.
Content of the third book. The victor must be declared. Judges were needed for this. The judge was usually the ruler who organized the games. Sometimes one or more were chosen for this purpose. They had varying degrees of skill and were of different numbers. Why they were called Hellanodikai. Their work, and that of the Agonothetai. The great prestige and splendor of the Hellanodikai. They were sometimes kings themselves. How and where they sat. They were splendidly dressed, often in purple. They wore a crown on their heads. They also carried staffs in their hands. These were for display, for admonition, for judging justly, as a sign of power, and for the ability to punish. Who all was punished.
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The straightness of the staff as a sign of justice. The staff also an emblem of peace. The Hellanodikai were regarded as the presiding deities of the games.
§. I.
All the effort that was put into and around the Olympic contests had as its goal the victory and the prize and crown that could be received from it: a prospect that softened all hardship and pain, and could make all dangers scorned. For this purpose, the prizes were put on display before the start of the games, showcased on tripods or tables, or sometimes hung up, so that their luster, shining in the eyes of the contestants, would all the more ignite their desire, and further encourage them and spur them on to the toughest endeavors. For how the mind, now that it is sinful, burns for empty honor! This present book will, therefore, deal with the prize and crown of victory.
§. II.
The prize was for the victor: but who the victor was had to be made clear first, and he had to be judicially declared so, and become entitled to the prize.
§. III.
Because the victor had to be judicially named, revealed, and declared as such, it was absolutely necessary that there were judges who pronounced the verdict on this. Therefore, we will first speak about these individuals and the matters concerning them as briefly and clearly as possible.
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§. IV.
It has been appropriately shown from Paschalius that the care and management of the games is of an older origin: it can therefore be inferred that in the celebration of the games there also existed a respectable authority and judicial power, to declare the victor by verdict and to award the prize. Such management and pronouncement of judgment usually rested with the ruler who organized the games. We see this clearly from what Virgil (Virgil, Aeneid, book 5) writes about Aeneas, whom he appoints on the Sicilian shore as the organizer of the games, and subsequently as the judge and distributor of prizes. So, without a doubt, the old kings of Elis, Aethlius, and so on, also had the leadership in all these capacities. When the games were revived, according to Pausanias, Iphitus also had the leadership, as did Oxylus and the descendants of Oxylus (Pausanias, book 5). So in the Roman games, as often as he pleased, the emperor sat at the front, as Roman antiquities everywhere attest. But it also happened that, for the execution of what these capacities required, one or more chosen persons were appointed. So it is said that Achilles (Homer, Iliad) appointed Phoenix as a supervisor of his father's games, to watch the race and speak the truth. And Philip the Macedonian, who had brought Greece under his yoke, not only presided over the Pythian games himself but also sent—what was the most hateful and unbearable for the Greeks—his servants there to perform that office, as Demosthenes relates (Demosthenes, Philippic 3). For the Neronian games, because he was usually a fellow competitor himself, Nero appointed masters of the games, namely men of consular authority, and had them sit in the place of the praetors: since the praetors (Suetonius, In Nero, chapter 12)
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the praetors, next to the ruler, or under him, had the management of the games and the presidency. But after the extinction, as it seems, of the line of Oxylus, when the games were increasingly gaining prestige and all of Greece became, or already was, interested in them, two citizens of Elis were chosen for this purpose, namely to care for, manage, and judge the victory: and this happened in the fiftieth Olympiad: after which it happened (Philostratus, In the life of Apollonius, book 5), that seven, nine, ten, and twelve were chosen for it. And to be precise, in the seventy-fifth Olympiad (Pollux, Onomasticon, book 8) nine were chosen, who were called Hellanodikai: as if to say; Greek judges, or judges of the Greek people. After that, their number was increased (Pausanias, book 5) or decreased, depending on the circumstances of the state. But why were these called Hellanodikai? Perhaps (Paschalius, On crowns, book 6, chapter 10) because at the beginning, since the game was a common one, they were appointed for this purpose from all Greek states, and they were more or less in number, as more or fewer Greek states (we would say provinces) had joined the league of Elis. These took on the care and management, but had the work, especially at the beginning, carried out by some lesser gentlemen, who bore the old name of agonothetai and athlothetai and so on, which name they, however, also adopted as chief-agonothetai, judges, and so on. However, when over time the Greek alliance was destroyed by Macedonians and Romans, these chief-agonothetai were chosen only from the Eleans: with regard to which latter the words of Paschalius are to be understood (Paschalius, book 6, chapter 11), when he says: They are also called Hellanodikai, namely the magistrates of Elis, distributors of prizes, caretakers or managers of the Olympic contest. That
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is: They were also called Hellanodikai, namely the magistrates of Elis, who were the caretakers and managers of the Olympic games. Furthermore, the Hellanodikai, as chief-agonothetai, first when they came from all Greek states, and then when they came only from the state of Elis, divided themselves, and authorized some from their midst to supervise these, and others to supervise those games, to judge them, and to award the prizes: in which two respects they were called judges, or brabeutai, that is, prize-distributors (), with three being appointed over the race, three over the pentathlon, and the others over the other games: namely to judge them and award the prize. The same thing we have already said in the first book with the words of Hospinianus from Pausanias (Pausanias, at the cited place).
() Pollux, book 3, chapter 30, makes this distinction between agonothetai and brabeutai, and says: In the musical contests the judges, the agonothetai, do sit, but over the wrestling arenas stand the prize-distributors, the brabeutai, whom Plato also calls athlothetai. These are therefore the distributors of the prize, a word that Paul also uses in 1 Corinthians 9:24 and Philippians 3:14, with more allusion to the Olympic contests, and translated by our people as prize. Philo says in his book On agriculture that the prize is actually the crown, which was given by the judge to the victor.
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princely game organizers, and did what kings were not ashamed to do, but considered as entertainment and glory. The words of Paschalius on this are therefore very noteworthy (Paschalius, book 6, chapter 10): Which privilege is certainly counted among the royal tasks, etc. That is: "which privilege is certainly counted among the royal acts, as Strabo relates of some kings (Strabo, book 14). Among the Persians, the kings themselves set the prizes for the race and for everything that is practiced in the pentathlon contests, according to the testimony of the same Strabo (Strabo, book 15). It seems, then, to have been a royal quality to manage these games. Certainly, the Corinthians requested Agesilaus (Plutarch, In Agesilaus) that he would take on the management of the Isthmian games: which, however, he did not do: but when they had managed it, he remained there, and he regulated the safety of the contestants. At Quintus Calaber (Quintus Calaber, book 4) Agamemnon writes the sign for those who had to run at the funeral games for Achilles.
The son of Atreus, who wields the scepter in Greece,
Marks the course around which the swift race turns.
Lucian also expressly relates that even Hercules presided in this (Lucian, In Hermes).
§. VI.
In addition to this honor of succession or succession, and by virtue of it, they also sat on the right hand of the agonothetai, that is, in our opinion, the under-agonothetai, under-athlothetai, and so on, who were their subordinate ministers or servants. And that (Lucian, ibid.)
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who sat to their left as inferiors, is again evident from Lucian, as well as from Faber, who cites him (Faber, Contests, book 3, chapter 19, from the beginning). This sitting, however, refers to those who formed the college, the assembly, from among them, as it seems to us, which some did, while the others, each in their threes, authorized, remained at their post of supervision, namely three at the end of the course (as is evident from the case of Eupolemus and Leo Ambratioter, about which more below) (Pausanias, book 6), and so on. Or also when they were all together for the judgment and prize distribution, as it seems to us that it used to happen. They sat then (although Paschalius believes that they also often stood, to better see and observe everything) (Paschalius, book 6, chapter 11), on the Plethrion, the partitioned seating, which was undoubtedly splendid and gave honor to its occupants, both for the artistry of its making, and because it was regarded as a sanctuary, and from there as an asylum, a free place (Pausanias, book 6): and finally because its location was directly opposite the altar and the seat of the priestess of the Chamyne Ceres, who alone was allowed to watch the game of naked men.
§. VII.
They were also splendidly dressed. For although Pausanias mentions (Pausanias, book 3) that because of the deceit of Pherenice—who disguised herself as a man when she brought her son Pisidorus to the contest and afterwards, when her son won the victory, revealed herself out of joy and became known as a woman—they subsequently had to preside naked: yet that immodesty did not always find favor, but they appeared again dressed, just as before, and in a garment of great splendor, namely the
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dignified and by the ancients so highly praised purple, a dress of kings, as also befitted those who stood in the place of kings and held a royal dignity. That they now sat in the splendid purple is not said everywhere, but is probably proven from Lucian (Lucian, ibid.), when he introduces Anacharsis who speaks in the Athenian school of pugilists and testifies that he had recognized someone from the purple as one of the chiefs. But it is even more evident from the imitation of two Roman emperors, Claudius and Domitian, for of the first Dio says (Dio, book 68) that he sat dressed in the Greek style in the games, and that he wore a purple cloak especially in the nude contest. And of the latter Suetonius says (Suetonius, In Domitian, chapter 4) that in the race of the young daughters, he took the presidency on sandals, and dressed in a purple Greek toga, etc. That being dressed in the Greek style, and in a purple Greek toga in the games, testifies (it seems to us) clearly enough, that the Greek magistrates were also adorned with the splendid purple.
§. VIII.
But these magistrates were also adorned with other royal paraphernalia: for they were also glorified with a crown; undoubtedly at first of the material with which the victors were crowned, namely olive leaves, but thereafter of gold. That they were crowned is sufficiently evident from what Diodorus Siculus relates (Diodorus Siculus, Library, book 15, chapter 78), namely that the Pisatans, with the help of the Arcadians, defeated the Eleans, whose players were crowned: not all players crowned,
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but the magistrates, as, in our opinion, Faber rightly explains it. The magistrates of the Isthmian games were also crowned, as Dio Chrysostom shows (Dio Chrysostom, In Diogenes), when he speaks about their staff-bearers, sent to tell Diogenes to lay down the crown he had received, and about the answer that Diogenes sent back to that. No less than the Isthmian, the Elean were without any contradiction crowned, where everything was more defiant. One may also conclude this from the cited passage from Dio concerning Claudius (Dio, again book 68), for showing him as game president, and as it were dressed in the Greek style, he says that that emperor, besides the purple, took a golden crown, that is, put it on. Likewise, Suetonius adds to the emperor Domitian (Suetonius, in Domitian, chapter 4), besides being dressed in a purple Greek skirt, the wearing of a golden crown on his head, with the images of Jupiter and Juno, while at the same time the Jupiter priest and the college of the Flaviales were also adorned with a similar garment and crown, in which, besides the other images, his own image was also formed. Xiphilinus, from Dio whose abridger he is, also goes so far as to show the emperor Commodus (Xiphilinus, in Commodus) dressed in purple in the Greek style, and adorned with a crown, bragging of Indian gems, in the theater, and thereby confirms what we say, namely, that the magistrates or judges of the Olympic games were crowned. It also almost did not fit otherwise, since they were to be considered as priests of the games, which were dedicated to that imagined god, and to the same (which here was especially the Olympian Jupiter). For the priests were crowned with olive wreaths, headbands, miters, and also with golden crowns, as is evident from the cited passage from
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Suetonius. The priestesses were also crowned; for Heliodorus relates of Chariclea (Heliodorus, Ethiopian Stories, book 1), priestess of Diana, that she was recognized by Theagenes by that attire as a priestess.
§. IX.
In addition, which also had something royal about it, they had staffs in their hands, as Faber proves from Hyginus (Hyginus, book 2), and can also be inferred from what happened to Cato the Younger near Antioch: for when they were holding games there, and came towards him (Plutarch, In Cato the Younger), he saw the chief manager of the game, who had a crown and a staff. That now, happening in imitation of the Olympic games, proved again that they carried the staff there. And for this reason the Olympic magistrates have also been called by some with the name of staff-bearers, as Scaliger notes (J. Scaliger, On poetry, book 1, chapter 24). That they now held the staff was a clear display of their greatness, since the staff from ancient times, and long before those times, has been a sign of royal authority, whether this was borrowed from the staff of shepherds, with which they guided and led the sheep; to make the rulers remember that they were shepherds of peoples: whether to represent their strength and violence through it (since one can double one's power with a stick): whether to inspire and present to them at the rod of justice, that they had to judge justly. Certainly, the Hellanodikai had them, both for display, as well as besides as a sign of power and ability, namely to punish immodest game players: which they, however, never or rarely did themselves, but had carried out by the staff-bearers, who were mainly the under-agonothetai, and by the whip-bearers,
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rightly to be called stick and club-bearers: which was done, either if a too disorderly commotion arose during the game, or if the fighters moved too slowly and made themselves suspect of collusion, mutual understanding: as is evident from what Augustine says (Augustine, On catechesis, chapter 16): through the passion for the games they become like devils, inciting the people with their noise, and hitting each other, and that they eagerly fight against each other, where they have not offended, to please the foolish people ---. When they are noticed to be in agreement, then they hate and persecute them, and call for them to be punished as colluders, who have made an agreement among themselves, and force the judge, who should be an avenger of all injustice, to do so, etc. Such a beating also happened when the contestants attacked too early and eagerly before their turn. This is alluded to in Plutarch (Plutarch, in Themistocles) by the answer that Eurybiades gave to Themistocles (who urged him that as admiral of the fleet at Sparta he should not take the work so lazily), saying; O Themistocles, at the games they beat those who start too early. But also he who, against the will of the magistrates, or by himself, crowned a victor was sometimes beaten: so Pausanias relates (Pausanias, book 6) that Lichas the Lacedaemonian, who, however, fought in the name of the Thebans, was beaten when he bound the wreath around the head of the victorious driver of his chariot. Just as also those who had fought and won the games with deceit and bribery sometimes got blows, and besides the blows were given a heavy fine: about which more below. And also on the orders of the Hellanodikai, through the mediation of the under-agonothetai and
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whip-bearers, the poor players were sometimes driven out of the arena with blows. This happened at least in the music game to Euangelus the Tarentine, for he who was to play for the prize on the cithara with two others, had dressed and adorned himself so splendidly that he attracted all eyes. However, being found to have no skill in this art when the game began, he was the mockery of all, and his thoughtlessness was punished by the whip-bearers with beating, so much so that he, crying, was led out of the theater through the middle of the stage with bloody legs and was excluded: if it is otherwise true, what Lucian relates (Lucian, in the booklet "Against an unreasonable wish"). Nero was also afraid of something like this, which is why he promised bribes to the agonothetai and whip-bearers, according to the story of Dio with Xiphilinus and Suetonius (Xiphilinus, in Nero; Suetonius, in Nero, chapter 23): as also Caracalla, who is said to have bowed and leaned in the chariot races in the circus for an agonothet, who was however only a freedman of rank, to escape the blows, if he made a mistake somewhere. Heliogabalus is said to have done something similar (Xiphilinus, in Heliogabalus). Besides this public matter, it is certain that also the gymnasiarchs and xystarchs, the masters of the exercise schools, were provided with staffs and rods in the management of their schools and the exercises there, and that they fiercely hit the students with them when they went too far: as is evident from what Plutarch relates of Antony (Plutarch, in Antony), who behaved, with the laying aside of military insignia and ornaments, like a gymnasiarch, an exercise schoolmaster in Athens, about which more can be read in Faber (Faber, book 1, chapter 19).
§. X.
But it has been said that the straight staff or rod, by its straightness, also gave an impression to the one who wielded it that it was his task to judge justly and impartially, and this staff was also wielded by the kings, because as supreme rulers they were also supreme judges. And therefore at Athens the staff was a sign of all judges: which is evident from the scholiast of Aristophanes (Scholiast at Aristophanes, in Plutus), who says: and after lots were drawn, one got the task to judge about these matters, the other about other matters. The herald (servant) gave each a staff, as a sign to judge justly: now when everyone returned his staff to the prytan at evening, he received a triobol for his sitting in judgment. And that the Attic judges took such staffs is also shown by Aristotle (Aristotle, in the State of Athens), saying: for on each of the courthouses above the entrance portal a motto is written. And he (the judge), taking the staff, enters his courthouse. So Homer also attributes staffs to the judges, sitting for deliberation and pronouncement of judgment (Homer, Iliad, book 18), and expressly calls them with the word scepters.
The judges, who, each grasping with his hands
The scepters, handed to them by their servants,
Sat in the sacred circle on carved stones.
This is how we translate it, although the scholiast Eustathius (Eustathius, at that place) has understood it in such a way that as soon as the judges were seated to pronounce judgment, they then
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handed over the scepters to the heralds, the servants, so that they might meanwhile restrain the noise of the people. It seems to us that they kept the scepters as long as they sat in judgment, but that in the meantime the servants had staffs or sticks to restrain the people and their noise. And this seems to us to be clear enough from the scholiast of Aristophanes, whose words have just been cited, as well as from the nature of things. In the meantime, however, the Eustathius mentioned here confirms that scepters were proper to the judges, saying: But the judges must have scepters: when they were sitting, they did not always have them, but when they stood up, they took them again. Otherwise, the surrounding heralds, the servants, had their scepters, etc. Since the Hellanodikai sat as judges in a judicial authority, what wonder was it then that they also wielded scepters, while their subordinates and servants, the agonothetai and whip-bearers, were partly also provided with staffs, partly with sticks.
§. XI.
It was also fitting for the Hellanodikai to hold the staff or scepter, since the staff from ancient times, because of the sign of power, government, management, and subjugation that was in it, has been an emblem of peace: namely, because through the power of a stick and management the quarreling and fighting can be separated, and brought to a point where they stop such actions, and furthermore are quiet, which is a part of peace, the other part being merely a continuation of that cessation, which often gets love, favor,
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affection, mutual union, and assistance, etc., as company. So a staff or scepter is attributed to Mercury, entwined with two coiled snakes, as the sign of peace, because he threw it between two fighting snakes and caused them to separate from their fight, brought them to silence, and thus to peace, according to the testimony of Orpheus (Orpheus, in Hymns). Apollo is said to have honored him with this, in return for his allowing him the honor of the invention of the lyre (Hyginus, at the cited place). It is said to have been of gold or gilded, because peace pours in wealth. Horace alludes to this when he sings of Mercury (Horace, Odes, book 1, ode 10):
You bring the pious souls to their happy resting place
and with your golden staff you restrain the light crowd,
thus beloved by the gods above,
and also below.
The Hellanodikai, I say, were therefore also suited to the staff or scepter, because by their management and judgment they caused rest and silence, since they not only calmed the commotion of the people, remedied the disorders of the fighters, but also separated those who after the struggle each grabbed most eagerly for the prize, and quarreled about it among themselves, as it happened, and thus brought them to rest.
§. XII.
Since they now sat in such splendor, they were almost to be regarded as the
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present gods of the game, although that title of honor otherwise belonged especially to Mercury, as has been shown elsewhere (Paschalius, book 6, chapter 11). And this was especially true for the oldest who was the president of all, and held the place of Mercury, or was rather considered to hold it: therefore also described by Faber as the presiding god of the game (Faber, book 1, chapter 19); who also had the rank in walking: which the same expresses as follows (The same, book 2, chapter 24, at the end): the same (namely Philostratus) teaches us in another place, that the oldest was accustomed to go first, and the other Hellanodikai, each according to the priority of his age, followed. Their rank was then the most natural, namely by age.