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GAMES, CLASSICAL
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See also:GAMES, CLASSICAL . 1. Public Games.--The public games of See also:Greece (ayCoves) and See also:Rome (Ludi) consisted in athletic contests and See also:spectacles of various kinds, generally connected with and forming See also:part of a religious observance. Probably no institution exercised a greater See also:influence in moulding the See also:national See also:character, and producing that unique type of See also:physical and intellectual beauty which we see reflected in See also:Greek See also:art and literature, than the public contests of Greece (see See also:ATHLETE; ATHLETIC See also:SPORTS). For them each youth was trained in the gymnasium, they were the central mart whither poet, artist and See also:merchant each brought his wares, and the See also:common ground of See also:union for every member of the Hellenic See also:race. It is to Greece, then, that we must look for the earliest See also:form and the fullest development of See also:ancient games. The shows of the See also:Roman See also:circus and See also:amphitheatre were at best a See also:shadow, and in the later days of the See also:empire a See also:travesty, of the See also:Olympia and Pythia, and require only a cursory See also:notice. The earliest games of which we have any See also:record are those at the funeral of Patroclus, which form the subject of the twenty-third Iliad. They are noteworthy as showing that Greek Greek games were in their origin clearly connected with See also:religion; either, as here, a part of the funeral See also:rites, or else instituted, in See also:honour of a See also:god, or as a thank-offering for a victory gained or a calamity averted, or in expiation of some See also:crime. Each of the See also:great contests was held near some See also:shrine or sacred See also:place and is associated with some deity or mythical See also:hero. It was not before the 4th See also:century that this honour was paid to a living See also:man (see See also:Plutarch, See also:Lysander, 18). The games of the Iliad and those of the Odyssey at the See also:court of See also:Alcinous are also of See also:interest as showing at what an See also:early date the distinctive forms of Greek athletics—boxing, See also:wrestling, putting the See also:weight, the See also:foot and the See also: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 See also:rich See also:plain of See also:Elis, bounded on the N. by the rocky heights of Cronion, and on the S. and W. by the See also:Alpheus and its tributary the Cladeus. There was the See also: The last Olympian victor was a Romanized Armenian named Varastad.
Let us See also:attempt to See also:call up the See also:scene which Olympia in its palmy days must have presented as the great festival approached. Heralds had proclaimed throughout Greece the " truce of God." So religiously was this observed that the Spartans See also:chose to See also:risk the liberties of Greece, when the Persians were at the See also:gates of Pylae, rather than See also: At daybreak the athletes presented themselves in the Bouleuterium, where the presidents were sitting, and proved by witnesses that they were of pure Hellenic descent, and had no stain, religious or See also: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 See also:fraud or guile in the sacred contests. Thence they proceeded to the See also:stadium, where they stripped to the skin and anointed themselves. A See also:herald proclaimed, " Let the runners put their feet to the See also:line," and called on the spectators to See also:challenge any disqualified by See also:blood or character. If no objection was made, they were started by the See also:note of the See also:trumpet, See also:running in heats of four, ranged in the places assigned them by See also:lot. The presidents seated near the See also:goal adjudged the victory. The foot-race was only one of twenty-four Olympian contests which Pausanias enumerates, though we must not suppose that these were all exhibited at any one festival. Till the 77th Olympiad all was concluded in one See also:day, but afterwards the feast was extended to five. The See also:order of the games is for the most part a See also:matter of conjecture, but, roughly speaking, the historical order of their institution was followed. We will now describe in this order the most important. (i) The Foot-race.—For the first 13 Olympiads the Spbµos, or single See also:lap of the stadium, which was 200 yds. long, was the only contest. The Siavaor, in which the course was traversed twice, was added in the 14th Olympiad, and in the 15th the 66Xr.Xos, or long race, of 7, 12 or, according to the highest computation, 24 laps, about 23 M. in length. We are told that the Spartan Ladas, after winning this race, dropped down dead at the goal. There was also, for a See also:short time, a race in heavy See also:armour, which See also: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 See also:palaestra, and Plutarch calls it the most See also:artistic and cunning of athletic games. The practice differed little from that of modern times, See also:save that the wrestler's limbs were anointed with oil and sprinkled with See also:sand. The third throw, which decided the victory, passed into a See also:proverb, and struggling on the ground, such as we see in the famous statue at See also:Florence, was not allowed, at least at the Olympia. (3) In the same year was introduced therivraOXov (pentathlon), a See also:combination of the five games enumerated in the well-known See also:pentameter ascribed to See also:Simonides: 1<'aµa, ro5a,Keih v, SLOKOV, &covra, r6.A'hv. 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 0% per or dumb-bells, which they swung in the See also:act of leaping and dropped as they " took off." The take-off may have been slightly raised, and some commentators with very little See also:warrant have stated that See also:spring-boards were used. The record jump with which Phayllus of Croton is credited, 55 ft., is incredible with or without a spring-See also:board. It is disputed whether a victory in all five contests, or in three at least, was required to win therlvraOXov. (4) The rules for See also:boxing were not unlike those of the modern See also:ring (see See also:PUGILISM), and the See also:chief difference was in the use of the See also:caestus. This in Greek times consisted of See also:leather thongs See also:bound See also:round the boxer's fists and wrists; and the weighting with See also:lead or See also:iron or See also:metal studs, which made the caestus more like a " See also:knuckle-duster " than a boxing-See also:glove, was a later Roman development. The death of an antagonist, unless proved to be accidental, not only disqualified for a prize but was severely punished. The use of See also:ear-See also:guards and the comic allusions to broken ears, not noses, suggest that the Greek boxer did not See also:hit out straight from the See also:shoulder, but fought See also:windmill See also:fashion, like the modern rustic. 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 See also:hippodrome, or racecourse, no traces remain, but from the description of Pausanias we may infer that the dimensions were approximately 1600 ft. by 400. Down the centre there ran a See also:bank of See also:earth, and at each end of this bank was a turning-See also:post round which the chariots had to pass. " To shun the goal with rapid wheels " required both See also:nerve and skill, and the charioteer played a more important part in the race than even the modern See also:jockey. Pausanias 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 all a See also:fair start. The number of chariots that- might appear on the course at once is uncertain. Pindar (Pyth. v. 46) praises See also:Arcesilaus of Cyrene for having brought off his chariot uninjured in a contest where no fewer than See also:forty took part. The large outlay involved excluded all but rich competitors, and even See also:kings and tyrants eagerly contested the See also:palm. Thus in the list of victors we find the names of Cylon, the would-be See also:tyrant of See also:Athens, Pausanias the Spartan king, See also:Archelaus of Macedon, (felon and See also:Hiero of See also:Syracuse, and Theron of See also:Agrigentum.. Chariot-races with mules, with mares, with two horses in place of four, were successively introduced, but none of these See also:present any See also:special interest. Races on horseback date from the 33rd Olympiad. As the course was the same, success must have depended on skill as much as on swiftness. Lastly, there were athletic contests of the same description 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 See also:intrinsic value, but after the 6th Olympiad the only prize for each contest was a See also:garland of See also:wild olive, which was cut with a See also:golden sickle from the kallistephanos, the sacred See also:tree brought by See also:Hercules " from the dark fountains of Ister in the See also:land of the See also:Hyperboreans, to be a shelter common to all men and a See also:crown of See also:noble deeds " (Pindar, Ol. iii. 18). Greek writers from See also:Herodotus to Plutarch dwell with complacency on the magnanimity of a See also:people who cared for nothing, but honour and were content to struggle for a corruptible crown; But though the Greek games present in this respect a favourable contrast to the greed and gambling of the modern racecourse, yet to represent men like Milon and Damoxenus as actuated by pure love of See also:glory is a pleasing fiction of the moralists. The successful athlete received in addition to the immediate honours very substantial rewards. A herald proclaimed his name, his parentage and his See also:country; the Hellanodicae took from a table of See also:ivory and See also:gold the olive crown and placed it on his See also:head, and in his hand a See also:branch of palm; as he marched in the sacred revel to the temple of Zeus, his See also:friends and admirers showered in his path See also:flowers and costly gifts, singing the old See also:song of See also:Archilochus, rftveXaa KaXXivucs, and his name was.canonized in the Greek See also:calendar. Fresh honours and rewards awaited him on his return See also:home. If he was an Athenian he received, according to the See also:law of See also:Solon, 500 drachmae, and See also:free rations for See also:life in the See also:Prytaneum; if a Spartan, he had as his See also:prerogative the post of honour in See also:battle. Poets like Pindar, Simonides and See also:Euripides sung his praises, and sculptors like Pheidias and See also:Praxiteles were engaged by the state to carve his statue. We even read of a See also:breach in the town walls being made to admit him, as if the common road were not See also:good enough for such a hero; and there are well-attested instances of altars being built and sacrifices offered to a successful athlete. No wonder then that an Olympian prize was regarded as the crown of human happiness. See also:Cicero, with a Roman's contempt for Greek frivolity, observes with a sneer that an Olympian victor receives more honours than a triumphant See also:general at Rome, and tells the See also:story of the Rhodian See also: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:—" See also:Die, Diagoras, for See also:thou hast nothing short of divinity to See also:desire." Alcibiades, when setting forth his services to the state, puts first his victory at Olympia, and the See also:prestige he had won for Athens by his magnificent display. But perhaps the most remarkable See also:evidence of the exaggerated value which the Greeks attached to athletic prowess is a casual expression which See also:Thucydides employs when describing the enthusiastic reception of See also:Brasidas at Scione. The state, he says, any man of sense can go day after day to view the same dreary round of fights and races. 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 See also:Romans from first to last were spectators. It is true that even in Greek games the professional See also:element played a large and ever-increasing part. As early as the 6th century B.C. See also:Xenophanes complains that the wrestler's strength is preferred to the See also: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 See also:birth, was ashamed to compete in See also: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 stigmatized by the satirist as a See also:mark of shameless effrontery.
Roman games are generally classified as fixed, extraordinary and votive; but they may be more conveniently grouped according to the place where they were held, viz. the circus or the amphitheatre.
For the Roman See also:world the circus was at once a See also:political See also:club, a fashionable lounge, a See also:rendezvous of gallantry, a betting ring, and a playground for the million. See also:Juvenal, speaking loosely, says that in his day it held the whole of Rome; but there is no See also:reason to doubt the precise statement of P. Victor, that in the Circus See also:Maximus there were seats for 350,000 spectators.
Of the various Ludi Circenses it may be enough here to give a short See also:account of the most important, the Ludi Magni or See also:Maxima.
Initiated according to legend by Tarquinius See also:Priscus, the Ludi Magni were originally a votive feast to Capitoline See also:Jupiter, promised by the general when he took the See also: First came the sons of See also:patricians mounted on horseback, next the See also:rest of the burghers ranged according to their military classes, after them the athletes, naked save for the See also:girdle round their loins, then the See also:company of dancers with the See also:harp and See also:flute players, next the priestly colleges bearing censers and other sacred See also:instruments, and lastly the simulacra of the gods, carried aloft on their shoulders or See also:drawn in cars. The games themselves were fourfold:—(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. (1) The chariot employed in the circus was the two-wheeled See also:war See also: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 twenty-four heats run in the day, each of four chariots. The distance traversed was fourteen times the length of the circus or nearly 5 m. The charioteers were apparently from the first professionals, though the stigma under which the gladiator lay never attached to their calling. Indeed a successful See also:driver may compare in popularity and See also:fortune with a modern jockey. The drivers were divided into companies distinguished by the See also:colours of their tunics, whence arose the See also:faction 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 See also:green and the See also:blue, were added under the empire, and for a short time in See also:Domitian's reign there were also the gold and the See also:purple. Even in Juvenal's day party spirit ran so high that a defeat of the green was looked upon as a second See also:Cannae. After the seat of empire had been transferred to See also:Constantinople these factions of the circus were made the basis of political cabals, and frequently resulted in sanguinary tumults, such as the famous Nika revolt (A.D. 532), in which 30,000 citizens lost their lives. (2) The Ludus Troiae was a sham-fight on horseback in which the actors were patrician youths. A spirited description 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. Venatio was the baiting of wild animals who were pitted either with one another or with men—captives, criminals or trained hunters 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 See also:arena. The See also:taste for these brutalizing spectacles grew apace, and the most distant provinces were ransacked by generals and proconsuls to See also:supply the arena with rare animals—giraffes, tigers and crocodiles. See also:Sulla provided for a single show See also:ioo lions, and See also:Pompey 600 lions, besides elephants, which were matched with Gaetuhan hunters. See also:Julius See also:Caesar enjoys the doubtful honour of inventing the See also:bull-fight. At the inauguration of the Colosseum 5000 wild and 4000 tame beasts were killed, and to commemorate voted him a crown of gold, and the multitude flocked round him and decked him with garlands, as though he were an athlete. The Pythian games originated in a See also:local festival held at See also:Delphi, anciently called Pytho, in honour of the Pythian See also:Apollo, and were limited to musical competitions. The date at which they became a Panhellenic ay6v (so See also:Demosthenes calls them) cannot be determined, but the Pythiads as a See also:chronological era date from 527 B.C., by which time See also: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 See also:interval of eight years. The Amphictyones presided and the prize was a chaplet of See also: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 established round of contests, except that no mention is made of a chariot-race. A See also:wreath of wild See also:celery was the prize. The Isthmian games, held on the See also:Isthmus of See also:Corinth in the first and third year of each Olympiad, date, according to See also:Eusebius, from 523 B.C. They are variously reported to have been founded by See also:Poseidon or See also:Sisyphus in honour of See also:Melicertes, or by See also:Theseus to celebrate his victory over the robbers Sinis and Sciron. Their early importance is attested by the law of Solon which bestowed a See also:reward of ioo drachmae on every Athenian who gained a victory. The festival was managed by the Corinthians; and after the See also:city was destroyed by See also:Mummius (146 B.C.) the See also:presidency passed to the Sicyonians until Julius Caesar rebuilt Corinth (46 B.c.). They probably continued to exist till See also:Christianity became the religion of the Roman empire. The Athenians were closely connected with the festival, and had the See also: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, differing little from those of the other great festivals, and the prize was a crown made at one time of See also:parsley (more probably wild celery), at a later See also:period of See also:pine. The importance of the Isthmian games in later times is shown by the fact that See also:Flamininus chose the occasion for proclaiming the liberation of Greece, 196 B.C. That at a later anniversary (A.D. 67) See also:Nero repeated the See also:proclamation of Flamininus, and coupled with it the announcement of his own infamous victory at Olympia, shows alike the hollowness of the first See also:gift and the degradation which had befallen the Greek games, the last faint relic of Greek See also:nationality. The Ludi Publici of the Romans included feasts and theatrical exhibitions as well as the public games with Roman. which alone we are concerned. As in Greece, they were intimately connected with religion. At the beginning of each civil year it was the See also:duty of the consuls to See also:vow to the gods games for the safety of the See also:commonwealth, and the expenses were defrayed by the See also: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 See also:passion, and under the empire games were looked upon by the See also:mob as one of the two necessaries of life. The aediles who succeeded to this duty of the consuls were expected to supplement the state See also:allowance from their private See also:purse. Political adven- turers were not slow to discover so ready a road to popularity, and what at first had been exclusively a state See also:charge devolved upon men of See also:wealth and ambition. A victory over some See also:barbarian See also:horde or the death of a relation served as the pretext for a magnificent display. But the worst extravagance of privp.te 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 favour their See also:throne de- pended. But though public games played as important a part in Roman as in Greek See also:history, and must be studied by the Roman historian as an integral See also:factor in social and political life, yet, regarded solely as exhibitions, they are comparatively devoid of interest, and we sympathize with See also:Pliny, who asks his friend how See also:Trajan's Dacian victories there was a butchery of II,000 beasts. The naumachia was a See also:sea-fight, either in the arena, which was flooded for the occasion by a See also:system of pipes and sluices, or on an artificial See also:lake. The See also:rival fleets were manned by prisoners of war or criminals, who often fought till one See also:side was exterminated. In the sea-fight on Lake Fucinus, arranged by the emperor See also:Claudius, ioo See also:ships and 19,000 men were engaged. But the special See also:exhibition of the amphitheatre was the munus gladiatorium, which See also:dates from the funeral games of See also:Marcus and Decimus See also:Brutus, given in honour of their See also:father, 264 B.C. It was probably borrowed from See also:Etruria, and a refinement on the common See also:savage See also:custom of slaughtering slaves or captives on the See also:grave of a See also:warrior or chieftain. Nothing so clearly brings before us the vein of coarseness and inhumanity which runs through the otherwise noble character of the Roman, as his passion for gladiatorial shows. We can See also:fancy how See also:Pericles, or even Alcibiades, would have loathed a spectacle that See also:Augustus tolerated and Traj)an patronized. Only after the See also: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 See also:sport. In spite of numerous prohibitions from See also:Constantine downwards, they continued to flourish even as See also:late as St See also:Augustine. To a Christian See also:martyr, if we may See also:credit the story told by See also:Theodoret and See also:Cassiodorus, belongs the honour of their final abolition. In the year 404 See also:Telemachus, a See also: 248 to commemorate the See also:millennium of the city.
2. Private Games.—These may be classified as outdoor and indoor games. There is naturally all the world over a much closer resemblance between the pursuits and amusements of See also:children than of adults. See also:Homer's children built castles in the sand, and Greek and Roman children alike had their dolls, their hoops, their skipping-See also:ropes, their See also:hobby-horses, their kites, their knuckle-bones and played at hopscotch, the tug-of-war, See also:pitch and toss, See also:blind-man's See also:buff, hide and seek, and See also:kiss in the ring or at closely analogous games. Games of See also:ball were popular in Greece from the days of See also:Nausicaa, and at Rome there were five distinct kinds of ball and more ways of playing with them. For particulars the See also:dictionary of antiquities must be consulted. It is See also:strange that we can find in classical literature no See also:analogy to See also:cricket, See also:tennis, See also:golf or See also:polo, and though the follis resembled our See also:football, it was played with the hand and See also:arm, not with the See also:leg. See also:Cock-fighting was popular both at Athens and
Rome, and quails were kept and put to various tests to prove their See also:pluck.
Under indoor games we may distinguish games of See also:chance and games of skill, though in some of them the two elements are combined. Tesserae, shaped and marked with pips like modern See also:dice, were evolved from the tali, knuckle-bones with only four See also:flat sides. The old Roman threw a See also:hazard and called a See also:main, just as did See also: The Latin name for a dice-See also:box has survived in the See also:fritillary butterfly and See also:flower.' The primitive See also:game of guessing the number of fingers silttultaneously held up by the player and his opponent is still popular in See also:Italy where it is known as " morra." The proverbial phrase for an honest man was quicum in tenebris mites, one you would See also:trust to See also:play at morra in the dark. See also:Athena found the suitors of See also:Penelope seated on cowhides and playing at reacted., some See also:kind of See also:draughts. The invention of the game was ascribed to See also: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 See also:division of the board into squares, as in the game of sroXets (cities). In the Roman latrunculi (soldiers), the men were distinguished as common soldiers and " rovers," the See also:equivalent of crowned pieces. Duodecim scripta, as the name implies, was played on a board with twelve See also:double lines and approximated very closely to our See also:backgammon. There were fifteen pieces on each side, and the moves were determined by a throw of the dice; " blots " might be taken, and the See also:object of the player was to clear off all his own men. Lastly must be mentioned the See also:Cottabus (q.v.), a game See also:peculiar to the Greeks, and with them the usual See also:accompaniment of a See also:wine party. In its simplest form each See also:guest threw what was See also:left in his See also:cup into a metal See also:basin, and the success of the throw, determined partly by the See also:sound of the wine in falling, was reckoned a See also:divination of love. For the various elaborations of the game (in See also:Sicily we read of Cottabus houses), See also:Athenaeus and See also:Pollux must be See also:con- sulted. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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