The length of the various foot-races was determined for the Greeks by the length of the stadium. The stade-race, as its name implies, was a single length, approximately 200 yards. The diaulos was twice the length of the stadium, or 400 yards. The length of the dolichos or long race is variously stated as 7, 12, 20, or 24 stades, from seven furlongs to nearly three miles.^[456] The divergence of these statements is probably due to the fact that the distances varied at different festivals, and at different periods, as they do at the present day. For Olympia the evidence is slightly in favour of a 24 stades race. These three races seem to have been universal. At the Isthmia, Nemea, and Panathenaea there was also a double diaulos of four stades called the horse diaulos (?pp??? or ?f?pp???) from the fact that the length of the course in the hippodrome was two stades, or double that of the stadium.^[457] There were different races for different ages, and it is possible that the boys’ races were shorter than those for men. Plato, in sketching his ideal scheme of physical education, lays down that boys are to run half the length of the men’s course, and the “beardless” two-thirds of the course.^[458] We do not know whether his scheme had any foundation in fact, but it is certain that in the girls’ races at Olympia the course was one-sixth shorter than the usual course.^[459] Besides these purely athletic events, there were races in armour, introduced for military purposes towards the close of the sixth century, and various ceremonial races such as the torch-race, survivals of ancient religious rites.

It will be convenient here to say a few words as to the ages of competitors. What is true of the foot-race holds good, of course, of all other competitions.

The classification of competitors according to age varied at different festivals. At Olympia and Delphi there were only two classes, men and boys. An inscription containing regulations for the Augustalia at Neapolis lays down that competitors in boys’ events must be over seventeen and under twenty years of age.^[460] As the Augustalia were modelled closely on the Olympia, it seems probable that these were the Olympic limits of age. But it is reasonable to suppose that a certain latitude was allowed, and that the Hellanodicae exercised considerable discretion in their judgment, taking into account not merely a competitor’s reputed age, but also his size and strength. Thus we are told that Agesilaus induced the officials to admit as a competitor in the boys’ competitions a young Athenian whom they would otherwise have disqualified because he was bigger than the other boys. On the other hand, one Nicasylus of Rhodes, who was eighteen years of age, was actually disqualified, and accordingly entered for and won the men’s competition.^[461] The possibility of a boy winning among men proves that the upper limit of age was a high one. It is mentioned as a remarkable record that a youth of twenty should be victorious in the open events at all the four Panhellenic festivals.^[462] In view of these facts, we may regard with some suspicion the story told by Pausanias that one Damiscus of Messene won the boys’ foot-race at the tender age of twelve!^[463]

At the Nemea and Isthmia we find a threefold division into boys, youths (????e???), and men. The ages denoted by these terms varied according to the regulations of different festivals. In later inscriptions we find the expressions “Pythian boys,” “Isthmian boys” used to denote boys within the limits of age prescribed at these festivals.^[464] Approximately it seems likely that the boys were those between the ages of twelve and sixteen, the beardless those between sixteen and twenty.^[465] Elsewhere, especially in local competitions, we have a far more elaborate classification. At the Erotidia in Boeotia the boys were divided into “the younger” and “the older.”^[466] In Chios we find five classes—boys, younger epheboi, middle epheboi, older epheboi, men.^[467] At the Athenian Thesea there are competitions for boys of the first, second, and third ages, confined to Athenians, and an open competition for boys of any age.^[468] Similarly, in the girls’ foot-races at the Olympic Heraea the girls are divided into three ages.^[469]

There is a general but mistaken idea that the stade-race was honoured above all other events among the Greeks.^[470] There is no evidence for assigning pre-eminence to the foot-race over other events, or to the stade-race over other foot-races. It is true that Xenophanes speaks of speed of foot as honoured more than strength. The fact that out of the eight athletic events for men existing at Olympia in his day, four were foot-races, while the foot-race also formed part of the pentathlon, is sufficient explanation of such a statement. But an examination of the Epinikia of Pindar and Bacchylides, or the list of athletic statues at Olympia, is sufficient to prove that Xenophanes’ words must not be pressed. Out of 25 athletic odes of Pindar, 6 are in honour of victories in the foot-race, including one for a double victory in the pentathlon and stade-race, 19 for other events. In Bacchylides three out of nine odes are for victories in the foot-race. At Olympia 45 statues were erected for victories in the four foot-races, 59 for victories in boxing, 39 for wrestling, 20 for the pankration.^[471] These figures are conclusive for Olympia and the Peloponnese. The only evidence to the contrary comes from Athens. At the Panathenaea the winner of the stade-race received 50 amphorae of oil, the pankratiast 40, and the other winners only 30.^[472] The inscription which records these facts refers only to competitions for boys and youths, but probably the same proportion was observed in those for men. The popularity of the foot-race at Athens is shown by the fact that at the Panathenaea in the second century there were no less than nine foot-races, not counting that in the pentathlon. Of the Panathenaic vases which we possess many more belong to the foot-race than to any other event. Most of the victories gained by the Athenians at Olympia were in the short-distance races, the only other event in which they show excellence being the pankration. These facts are in entire accordance with all that we know of the Athenian character, which combined with a certain reckless daring and love of adventure a constitutional dislike of prolonged exertion.^[473] But the home of Greek athletics was not Athens but the Peloponnese, and here at least the stade-race enjoyed no pre-eminence. The selection of the winner of this race as eponymos for the Olympiad has been explained already as due to the fact that this race came first in the list; it may also be due in part to the literary supremacy of Athens.

From a very early time the Greeks discarded the use of the loin-cloth in racing, and ran absolutely naked. For this, as for all athletic exercises, the body was carefully oiled. Bacchylides describes how Aglaus of Athens in the double diaulos, as at the finish of the race he rushed on into the cheering crowds, bespattered with oil the garments of the spectators.^[474] Competitors ran barefooted and bareheaded. The soft leather boots (??d???de?) which Pollux says that they wore, were worn only by couriers and messengers, not by athletes.^[475] We see no trace of them on the vases.

We have seen that the start (?fes??) of the running track was marked by two parallel grooves a few inches apart. Though the evidence of the excavations does not allow us accurately to determine the date of the stone sills in which these lines are cut, the frequent allusions in writers of the fifth century to the starting line (????) proves beyond all doubt that this was the method of starting in the fifth century and earlier. Here, as an old song tells us, the herald summoned the competitors to “take their stand foot to foot,” just as we see them represented on vases.^[476] The signal to start was given by the herald calling “Go” (?p?te),^[477] or perhaps as in the chariot-race, by a blast of the trumpet.^[478] Then, as to-day, runners would try to get a good start, and poach a yard or two. But Greek methods of discipline were more drastic than our own. “Those who start too soon are beaten,” says Adeimantus to Themistocles in the historic council before Salamis.^[479]

But what was the use of the double line? Here again the parallel grooves can have been no innovation introduced with the stone sills; they must surely represent the practice of an earlier time. Two lines were cut in stone, because two lines had been marked in the sand previously. They certainly cannot have been intended to give a firm foothold for the runners’ feet, nor is there a particle of evidence for the natural and attractive suggestion that the Greek started off his hands like the modern sprinter, and that the grooves afforded a grip for his fingers.^[480] The lines seem only to have been intended to mark the position for both feet. Why this was done is doubtful. The position implied is somewhat cramped for a starter. Perhaps the object was to render it more difficult to poach at the start. Be this as it may, it is certain that the Greek runner did start with his feet close together in the position required by the lines.^[481] The position is depicted on several vases; but the best example of it is the charming bronze statuette of a hoplitodromos from TÜbingen (Fig. 12).^[482] He stands with his right foot a few inches behind the left, the toes of the right nearly level with the left instep. Both knees are slightly bent, the body is leaning forward, and the right arm is advanced to preserve the balance. The whole attitude is that of a man on the alert, ready to start at any moment. The shield on the left arm has been broken away. On a red-figured amphora in the Louvre (Fig. 47)^[483] a hoplitodromos is represented in an almost identical position. Opposite stands a draped and wreathed official with his right arm extended and his hand turned somewhat upwards and backwards. It is a singularly appropriate gesture, which we often meet with in athletic scenes. We seem almost to hear him say to the runners, “Steady on the mark.” Another drawing shows us an unarmed runner standing beside a pillar ready to start, while a youthful official holds over him a forked rod with which to correct him if he leaves the mark too soon (Fig. 48). The position of the feet is the same, but the body is inclined more forwards, and having no shield to inconvenience him he holds both arms to the front. A more upright position is shown in Fig. 49, which is taken from Hartwig’s Meisterschalen. The attitude illustrated in these examples is in its essence the same as that adopted by many runners in the present day, the chief difference being that the modern runner starts with his feet somewhat wider apart, and his position is therefore less cramped.

Such was the position adopted at the start in the fifth century, and it continued as long as and wherever the double-grooved starting lines continued to be used. It seems, however, that sometimes the runners were stationed behind a barrier formed by a rope (?sp???) or by a wooden bar, and that the signal for the start was given by dropping this rope or bar.^[484] Ropes, as we know, were used in the chariot-race, a separate rope being stretched in front of each chariot. Aristophanes uses the phrase “from a single rope” (?spe? ?p? ??? ?sp????d??) to denote a simultaneous movement “of one accord.”^[485] The vase paintings do not furnish the faintest indication of the use of a rope in the foot-race. The only possible trace of its use revealed by excavation is the line of herms at Athens, which cannot be earlier than imperial times. The posts, which were placed in the square sockets along the starting line, cannot have been used to support a rope; for such a rope is incompatible with the use of the starting lines. There is no evidence of its use in the foot-race till the third century B.C., when we find reference to the ?sp???e? in inscriptions relating to the stadia at Epidaurus and Athens,^[486] and an undoubted allusion to it in the poet Lycophron, who speaks of a “winged runner bursting through the balbis rope.”^[487] Even then we may doubt whether its use was ever universal. With a rope a false start is impossible; and yet allusions to runners poaching at the start occur in literature from Herodotus to Plutarch, or even later.^[488] Still, it is certain that a rope was sometimes used, that it was raised at some height above the ground and stretched tight in front of the runners, and that the signal to start was given by the dropping of the rope. A late epigram tells us that this was accompanied by an audible sound.^[489] In default of definite evidence, it may be suggested that it was worked by a spring, perhaps somewhat after the manner of the modern starting-gate. Some support for this suggestion is afforded by the use of the word ?sp??? to denote a spring hunting-trap.

Allusion is also made to a bar of wood placed in front of the runners, the removal of which gave the signal to start.^[490] Such a barrier can hardly have been introduced earlier than the time of the Empire, and was probably borrowed from the Roman circus. As stated in the last chapter, it is possible that the grooves in the pillars at Athens and Epidaurus served to hold some solid barrier of this sort.

In the stade-race, the runners were divided into heats (t??e??), which were drawn by putting into a helmet lots marked with the different letters of the alphabet.^[491] If, as seems probable at Olympia, each heat consisted of four, there would be four lots marked A, four B, and so on. It appears that there was no second draw, but that all the winners of heats ran together in the final, so that the final winner had won twice.^[492] The starting lines at Olympia provided room for twenty runners at once. In short races the field is often a large one, and we hear of no less than seven Crotoniats winning their heats in a single Olympiad.^[493] There is no reason for supposing that the heats were always limited to four. The number would naturally be determined by the number of entries and the length of the starting lines. On the Panathenaic vases representing this race we find usually four, but sometimes two, three, or five runners taking part, though it is unsafe to draw conclusions from this evidence, the number of figures being largely determined in a drawing by considerations of space.^[494] Of one thing we may feel sure in spite of assertions to the contrary in modern text-books: the heats were so arranged as to avoid the necessity of a bye. A single odd runner would be attached to one of the heats, two or more would form a heat by themselves. Whether heats were employed in the longer races we have no evidence to determine.

The runners were separated from one another at the start by posts placed in the stone sill, and in later times by more massive pillars, and similar posts or pillars marked the finish or turning point. It has been suggested that ropes were fastened to these posts, which ran the length of the course and separated the runners from one another. Unfortunately, there is no evidence for this natural and attractive explanation, and such evidence as we do possess is unfavourable. We hear occasionally of runners interfering with one another by holding, tripping, and running across.^[495] Such foul practices seem to have been rare, and were of course strictly forbidden. The competitors at Olympia swore a solemn oath to abstain from all foul play. But on a roped course these practices are impossible. They may, of course, have been confined to the long-distance races, in which the course was certainly not roped. But this is mere supposition, and in the dearth of evidence we must look for some other explanation of the posts. In the first place they must have served as guide-posts for the runners, a very necessary aid in a broad track 200 yards long,—in which it is by no means easy to run straight without assistance. Possibly each post was distinguished by some special sign or colour. Then in the diaulos the runners probably turned round these posts, each turning round his own post. Finally, as the use of the tape seems to have been unknown at the finish, they must have given the judges a most useful line for judging a close finish. It is possible that the first who touched his pillar won, and that in the turn the runners had to touch their respective pillars. But this is mere conjecture.

In the stade-race each runner ran straight to the post opposite his starting point. The manner of running the other races is more difficult to determine. The centre socket in one of the lines at Olympia is larger than the rest, and Dr. DÖrpfeld is of opinion that in the diaulos and dolichos the other posts were removed and only the central one was left, round which all competitors raced. In the diaulos such a system would have put those who started on the outside at a serious disadvantage compared with those who started in the centre, a disadvantage accentuated by the confusion and crowding at the turn. It seems therefore probable that the runners raced each to his own post, and turning round it to the left raced back along the parallel track. In the longer races the objection is less important, and the representations of the dolichos on vases seem to show that all the runners raced round and round the central posts at either end. On an early Panathenaic vase (Fig. 50) four runners are shown running to the left towards a rough post. The foremost runner has just reached the post, his left foot just passing it, but he has not yet turned. The style of running shows that the post denotes the turn and not the finish.^[496]

The difference in style between the sprinter and the long-distance runner is clearly marked on Panathenaic vases. The style of the latter is excellent; his arms are held close in to the sides, yet swinging freely without any stiffness; his body is slightly inclined forward, with chest advanced and head erect; and he moves with a long sweeping stride, running on the ball of the foot, but without raising the heel unduly (Fig. 51). At the finish he, too, like the sprinter, swung his arms violently in making his spurt, using them as wings, says Philostratus.^[497] This idea of the winged runner seems to have influenced the early representation of the stade runner, which at first sight appears almost grotesque. He seems to be advancing by a series of leaps and bounds with arms and fingers spreadeagled (Fig. 52).

In criticizing these drawings we must not forget that the subjects on the Panathenaic vases are usually treated in a conventional manner. The earliest of these vases are archaic work of the sixth century, the latest archaistic work of the fourth century, and, as is usual in objects connected with religion, the conventions of the earlier period are preserved in the later. Now, if we make allowance for the limitations of the early artist, and the extreme difficulty of the subject, we shall find that the artists have succeeded in reproducing the essential points of a sprint. The runners run well on the ball of the foot, the heel somewhat higher than in the long race; their knees are well raised and their bodies erect. The movement of the arms seems exaggerated at first, till we compare the vase paintings with snapshot photographs of a short-distance race. Then we see that every sprinter uses his arms. The Americans have certainly reduced running to a science, and I will therefore quote a passage from a well-known American trainer and athlete: “The arms are of great service in sprinting, and the importance of this fact is generally under-estimated. They are used in bent form and moved almost straight forward and back, not sideways across the body.”^[498] This is just what we see on the vases. Why, then, is the effect grotesque? Because the vase painter has made the right arm move with the right leg and vice versa, whereas, in reality, the right arm moves with the left leg. A similar mistake may often be observed in the drawings of horses. In both cases the mistake is due partly to the difficulty of representing the action accurately; partly, and this is true especially of the finer red-figured vases, to artistic causes. A side view of a sprinter always looks awkward, and the artist therefore tries to improve upon nature. But that the Greek really used his arms just as we do is shown by the fact that on some of the later Panathenaic vases the arms are represented quite correctly (Fig. 53), and occasionally even on sixth-century vases, as in the leading runner of Fig. 52.^[499] The grotesqueness of movement is enhanced by the stiff manner in which the fingers are outstretched—another purely artistic peculiarity, which we need not therefore, as a popular lecturer did recently, hold up as an example for the imitation of modern athletes. As a matter of fact, the action of the Greek sprinter is not so violent as that of the modern, and this is natural, seeing that the Greeks had no race shorter than 200 yards.

In the diaulos and hippios the style must have been less violent. Perhaps some of the existing vases represent these events, but owing to the absence of any inscription we cannot say for certain. One fragment found at Athens bears the inscription “I am a diaulos runner”; and the style, as we should expect, is a compromise between that of the sprinter and that of the long-distance runner. The arms are swung, but not as violently as in the sprint, while the stride is long and even, the knees not raised unduly.^[500] On another fragment found at Athens we find the position of the arms typical of the dolichos combined with the high action of the sprinter. Unfortunately this fragment is uninscribed.^[501]

The physical types represented on these vases vary considerably. On the earlier vases a short, thick-set, bearded type prevails, with powerful shoulders and thighs. On the later vases we see greater length of limb. The thinness of the sprinters is sometimes exaggerated to the point of emaciation. On the other hand, some of the long-distance runners, in spite of their length of limb, seem too heavy in build for the distance. They are of the type of the Apoxyomenos, who, though he might be excellent over 200 yards or quarter of a mile, is too heavy for a three-mile race.

A peculiarity ascribed in our text-books to the Greek runner is the habit of encouraging himself to greater efforts by shouting as he ran, with all the strength of his lungs. The only evidence for so absurd and improbable a practice is a rhetorical passage in Cicero,^[502] who can hardly be regarded as an authority on Greek athletics, even on those of his own day, when athletics were at their lowest ebb. Nor need we credit the statement that the Greeks raced in deep sand. Lucian, it is true, describes the youths in the gymnasium practising running in the sand as a severe form of exercise,^[503] but the account preserved of the careful preparation of the stadium at Delphi proves that the racing track was something very different.

It is difficult to form any estimate of value as to the respective merits of different districts in different branches of athletics. The evidence is too fragmentary and extends over too vast a period. Many of the extraordinary performances which Pausanias records belong to the time of the Empire. For the period of Greek independence it seems safe to say that in the Peloponnese the Spartans and Arcadians were most successful in the foot-race, and outside the Peloponnese, the Crotoniats and Cretans.^[504] The excellence of the latter in long-distance running is illustrated by Xenophon’s account of the games held by the remnant of the ten thousand at Trapezus, at which no less than sixty Cretans competed in the dolichos.^[505] Most of the celebrated runners have been mentioned in the course of our history. To these we may add the names of Phayllus of Croton, a stadiodromos and pentathlete, of whom we shall have more to say, and Ladas of Sparta, a long-distance runner of the fifth century, who must not be confused with a later Ladas of Achaea, who won the stade-race in Ol. 125. The popular idea that Ladas died as he reached the goal, in the very moment of victory, is hardly creditable to the training of the most famous runner of his day. It seems to be a myth, derived from a misunderstanding of the epigram which describes the statue of the runner made by Myron.^[506] Pausanias merely tells us that he died shortly after his victory, on his way home. We have no means of comparing the performances of Greek runners with those of our own. We hear of a sprinter who could outrun and catch hares,^[507] of another runner who raced a horse from Coronea to Thebes and beat it.^[508] Pheidippides, as we all know, ran from Athens to Sparta in two days; Ageus, who won the long race at Olympia in Ol. 113, is reported to have carried the news of his victory to Argos on the same day; and a still better performance is recorded in a fourth-century inscription found at Epidaurus of one Drumos, who records as an “example of manliness,” that he brought the news of his Olympic victory from Elis to Epidaurus on the same day. The distance as the crow flies is nearly ninety miles.^[509] All this is too vague for comparison. Such scanty evidence suggests that the Greeks obtained a generally high standard of excellence in running, and that such superiority as they may have possessed was shown rather in long races than in short.

The race in armour was first introduced at the close of the sixth century.^[510] It was a military exercise, and its introduction was an attempt to restore to athletics that practical character which under the stress of competition was even then in danger of being lost. Its practical character naturally won for it the approval of Plato, who proposed to introduce in his ideal state races in heavy and in light armour. Appealing as it did to the whole body of soldier-citizens rather than to specialized athletes, it was an extremely popular event, and its popularity was enhanced by its picturesqueness, which made it a favourite subject for the vase painter. For the same reason it seems not to have possessed, at all events in later times, the same athletic importance as the purely athletic events: it was no race for the specialist; rather it belonged to that class of mixed athletics, such as obstacle races and races in uniform, which are a popular and also a valuable feature in military sports. Hence at Olympia and elsewhere the race in armour was an appropriate close to the athletic programme,^[511] marking as it did the connexion between athletic training and real life.

There were many varieties of the armed race, differing from one another in distance, in equipment, and in rules. The most strenuous of all these competitions was that at the Eleutheria at Plataea, partly, Philostratus tells us, owing to the length of the course; partly owing to the completeness of the armour worn, which enveloped the athlete from head to foot; partly owing to a remarkable rule that any competitor who having once won the race entered again and failed incurred the penalty of death. Perhaps this regulation means no more than that no previous winner was allowed to compete a second time.^[512] At Nemea the race was over the hippios course of four stades, at Olympia and at Athens it was a diaulos of two stades.^[513] Elsewhere the distance may have been different. Similarly the equipment varied. The runners at Olympia originally wore helmets and greaves, and carried round shields, twenty-five of which were kept there for the use of competitors. The wearing of greaves was discontinued at a later date.^[514] The vase paintings, which mostly represent Athenian practice, show that while the usage varied previous to 520 B.C., greaves became general after that date, but disappear entirely after 450 B.C.^[515] There is no evidence that the runners ever carried weapons. The danger of such a practice is obvious. We often see processions of hoplites thus armed proceeding at a double, and these are often described as races.^[516] It seems safer and more reasonable to regard them merely as military processions, or perhaps competitions such as we know took place at the Athenian festivals.

All the various details of the race are pictured on the vases. On a red-figured vase by Euphronius in Paris we see the preparations for the race (Fig. 54). In the centre stands a robed official or trainer with his rod, and around him are various runners practising. One of them is putting on his armour, others, perhaps, are engaged in a preliminary canter such as is described by Statius.^[517] The position at the start has already been described. From the number of shields kept for this race at Olympia it would seem that the field was usually a large one, as we should expect, and certain vases representing the turn indicate that whatever was the case in the unarmed diaulos the runners in armour raced, not each round his separate post, but all together round the central post, turning round it to the left. This critical moment is perhaps represented in the left-hand group on the Euphronius kylix, where the runner to the left has just completed the turn, and is starting on his way back, but has not yet got into his stride. Another vase shows a pair of runners—one checking his pace before the turn, and another in the very act of turning (Fig. 55). Their attitude seems to show that the turn took place round a pillar, and that the runners had not merely to toe the line. The most complete picture of the race is represented on a red-figured kylix in Berlin (Fig. 56). On one side we see a group of three. To the right a runner is in the position of the start; to the left another is almost in the act of swinging round the post at the turn. Both these runners move to the left; the central runner, who is already starting back, moves to the right. On the other side we see three runners in full race, one of whom is guilty of the fatal mistake of looking round. Is he protesting against his fellow-runner for some unfairness?

Finally, on a red-figured vase in the British Museum, we see the finish of the race (Fig. 57). A bearded runner who has passed the winning post looks back in triumph on his rival, who, as he reaches the goal, seems to have thrown down his shield in disgust. The winner holds in his hand his helmet, which he has just taken off. This gesture, which occurs on a number of vases, seems to be symbolical of victory. What could be more natural at the finish of a 400 yards’ race over the hot sand and beneath the scorching sun of Olympia than to take off the heavy, cumbrous helmet? The action reminds one, too, of a cricketer who after a fine innings takes off his cap as he returns to the pavilion. Of the style of the runners little need be said; it resembles the style of the stade runner in the swinging of the arm, and for obvious reasons of symmetry the vase painter always makes the right arm work with the right leg, the left arm, which holds the shield, being generally stationary. The type of runner represented on Panathenaic vases is, as we should expect, sturdier and heavier than is shown in other races. The hoplites on one in the British Museum exhibit that length of body in comparison with length of leg which Philostratus mentions as a useful quality for this event, and we may further note that they run on a flat foot (Fig. 58). Yet in spite of such examples a foreign archeologist has maintained that the hoplitodromos advanced by a series of leaps and bounds, and has deduced therefrom the theory that jumping was the best training for this race, and that therefore the statue of a hoplitodromos practising, described by Pausanias, represented him not running, but jumping! The Greek athlete has certainly been hardly treated by some of his admirers.

The popularity of the armed race in the fifth century is partly due to that spirit of military enthusiasm which animated athletics after the Persian wars, and partly to its attractiveness as a spectacle. There is something amusing in the sight of a body of men racing at full speed in incongruous costume, and the comic element in the armed race is brought out in the Birds of Aristophanes,^[518] where Peisthetaerus as he watches the chorus of birds advancing on the stage with their quaint plumage and crests aptly compares them to the hoplites assembling to run the diaulos. Amusing incidents must have been frequent, especially in the crowding at the turning post. On vases, for example, we often see a runner who has dropt his shield, or stoops to pick it up.^[519] A race of this kind naturally lends itself to variations, and of these we have evidence on the vases. A red-figured kylix at Munich shows two armed runners racing to the left, holding their shields in front of them in a decidedly quaint style (Fig. 59). Three others race in the opposite direction, two of them with helmets only, the third unarmed. The sponge and other implements hanging on the walls indicate that the scene is placed in the gymnasium where athletes are practising; but the idea suggested is undoubtedly that of a race in which the runners at the end of the lap put down their shields and ran the next lap without them, and then, perhaps, doffed their helmets also. No certainty is attainable as to details, but the vases establish the general fact that such variations did exist at different places.^[520]

The comic element is still more apparent in the Lampadadromia and in the Oschophoria described above.^[521] These old ritual races hardly come within the sphere of true athletics, although connected with the gymnasia and the training of the epheboi. They are of the type of events which we find in the modern gymkhana, and it is therefore unnecessary to describe them here at length.

The torch-race was widely spread throughout Greek lands and its popularity was maintained till Roman times. At Athens there were torch-races at the Panathenaea, at the Epitaphia and the Thesea, and in the time of Socrates a torch-race on horseback was instituted at the festival of Bendis. The torch-race took place at night. There were two principal varieties of it—one a race between individuals, the other between teams. In the former the runners started from the altar of Prometheus in the Academy, and raced into the city, the one who arrived first with his torch lighted being proclaimed victor. The efforts of the runners to keep their torches alight as they ran along stooping like boys in an egg and spoon race caused endless amusement among the spectators, and as they passed through the narrow gateway into the city, the ribald dwellers in the potters’ quarter sped them on their way with loud resounding slaps.^[522] The team-race is familiar to all from the famous simile in the Agamemnon. The members of the teams were posted at intervals along the way; the first runner handed it to the second as he reached him, and so on till it came to the last. The team that brought their torch still lighted to the finish first was declared the winner. The teams must have been originally representative of the tribes. In the first century B.C. we find teams mentioned from various palaestrae; thus victories are recorded of boys from the palaestra of Timeas, and of Antigenes, or from the Lyceum.^[523] The training of the teams was a voluntary service (?e?t?????a) performed by the Gymnasiarchoi, or by special officials, the Lampadarchoi, whose names are mentioned on inscriptions when their teams won. There were torch-races for boys and youths of various ages. Aristophanes speaks of torch-racing and hunting as the fashionable amusements of a smart youth.^[524] At a later time the torch-race is mentioned in inscriptions as one of the duties expected from the epheboi, rather as a ceremonial duty than as an athletic exercise.^[525] The religious character of the race was maintained in Roman times. An inscription from Scyros prescribes penalties for any one, whether slave or freeman, found guilty of unfair practices in the torch-races of the tribes. If a slave, he is to be scourged and his master fined; if a freeman or one of the runners, he is not only to be fined but considered a “sacrilegious person and accursed.”^[526]

Little is known of the methods of training employed by Greek runners. The gymnasia at Olympia and Delphi were provided with running tracks corresponding in length to the actual stadia, and that at Olympia was provided with grooved starting sills. Thus the runners could practise the start, and, what was equally important, the turn, under the same conditions as obtained in competition. To gain endurance they ran in heavy sand. Aristotle mentions as an exercise practised in the palaestra running or rather waddling on the knees!^[527] At a later date we learn from Epictetus that the training for the long-distance runner was different from that of the sprinter in its regulations for diet, massage, and food; but he gives us no details.^[528] Philostratus tells us that the long-distance runner instead of training over the whole course would run eight or ten stades only, a practice quite in accord with that of the present day.^[529] In those degenerate days athletes had also recourse to quack medicines and charms. A concoction of equisetum was recommended as a cure for the stitch, and some runners for a similar purpose wore a girdle of horses’ teeth. Athletes have always been superstitious.^[530]