Page:History of Greece Vol IV.djvu/75

 PROGRESS OF THE OLYMPIC FESTIVAL. 57 3xhibition of wealth in which the chariot proprietors indulged, i 1 not only an evidence of growing importance in the Olympic games, but also served materially to increase that importance, and to heighten the interest of spectators. Two farther matches were added in the 33d Olympiad (G48 B.C.), the pankration, or box- ing and wrestling conjoined, 1 with the hand unarmed or divested of that hard leather cestus 2 worn by the pugilist, which rendered the blow of the latter more terrible, but at the same time pre- vented him from grasping or keeping hold of his adversary, and the single race-horse. Many other novelties were introduced one after the other, which it is unnecessary fully to enumerate, the race between men clothed in full panoply, and bearing each his shield, the different matches between boys, analogous to those between full-grown men, and between colts, of the same nature as between full-grown horses. At the maximum of its attraction the Olympic solemnity occupied five days, but until the. 77th Olympiad, all the various matches had been compressed into one, beginning at daybreak and not always closing before dark. 3 The 77th Olympiad follows immediately after the success- (vi, 16) puts into the mouth of Alkibiades, and Xcnophon into that of Simonides (Xenophon, Hicro, xi, 5). The great respect attached to a family which had gained chariot victories is amply attested : see Herodot vi, 35, 36, 103, 126, olniri TedpnnroTpofioc, and vi, 70, about Pemaratu:; king of Sparta. 1 Antholog. Palatin. ix, 588 ; vol. ii, p. 299, Jacobs. 3 The original Greek word for this covering (which surrounded tho middle hand and upper portion of the fingers, leaving both the ends of the, fingers and the thumb exposed) was fytaf, the word for a thong, strap, or whip, of leather : the special word p-vpfirj^ seems to have been afterwards introduced (Hesychius, v, *I//af) : see Homer, Iliad, xxiii, 686. Cestus, or Csestus, is the Latin word (Virg. JEn. v, 404), the Greek word nearby is an adjective annexed to //me Kearbv Iftuvra Tro/Ukearoc ipuf (Iliad, xir, f]4; iii, 371). See Pansan. viii, 40, 3, for the description of the incident which caused an alteration in this hand-covering at the Nemean games. ultimately, it was still farther hardened by the addition of iron. 3 'Aetf/.uv ire/j.7ra/ie/>ovf a/i.'A/lno. Pindur, Olymp. v, 6 : compare Schol. See the facts respecting the Olympic Agon collected by Corsini (Disser- tationes Agonisticae, Dissert, i, sects. 8, 9, 10), and still more amply set forth with a valuable commentary, by Krattse (Olympin, oder Darstcllnng d'jr grosser) Olympischen Spiele. Wien, 1838, soots. 8-11 especially). 3*
 * d Pindar. Olymp. iii, 33.