spectators of them. The ceremonies opened in the evening, with sacrifices upon all the altars, which were adorned with festoons, the principal offerings being reserved for the grand altar of Jupiter. These were upon a very magnificent scale, all the principal cities of Greece sending victims for the Olympian Jupiter. The ceremonies were performed by the light of the moon to the sound of instruments and every solemnity was employed that could awaken and mix up in admiration, and inspire reverence in the multitude. At midnight, when they ended, most of the spectators, with an eagerness that never deserted them during the whole festival, ran instantly to secure places in the course, the better to enjoy the spectacle of the games, which were to commence at daybreak.

The Elean people, represented by judges, termed "hellanodichs,” had the entire direction of everything appertaining to the festival, being invested for the occasion with plenary authority to keep in perfect order that vast assembly; but whether their police were like ours, is not now very easily determined. But as people of all ranks and from every region and colony of Greece came to the festival, the "hellanodichs," clothed in purple robes, and bearing the usual ensign of magistracy, seems sometimes to have exercised a sort of Papal power, and did exactly what they pleased by the assumption of the will, introducing new games, or modifying the old ones. They, however, never adopted the cruel gladiatorial shows of the Romans; and when a citizen once thought proper to propose publicly the introduction of these games, in order, as he said, that Athens might not be inferior to Corinth.-"Let us first," cried an Athen, with vivacity, "let us first overthrow the altar of Pity, which our ancestors set up more than a thousand years ago!"

I will now endeavour to inform my young readers concerning the order of these celebrated games, but, before I do so, would wish to give them some notion of the appearance of Olympia and its neighbourhood at the period of the sports. The whole was an open

country, and more especially the banks of the Alphæus bore the semblance of a vast encampment, from the great number of seats set up to accommodate the visitors. It was a great fair with its dealers,

showmen, mountebanks, and exhibitors of all sorts. River and sea were covered with innumerable vessels, the shore with carriages and horses; spectators were thronging from all quarters of the earth, and and in every possible variety of costume, some conducting victims for the Olympian Jupiter, some deputed to publish edicts, others coming to display their vanity and ostentation, or to distinguish themselves by their superior talent and knowledge. Here, sculptors, painters, and other artists exhibited specimens of their skill; there rhapsodists were to be seen reciting fragments of Homer and Hesiod; while the porticos of the temples and all the walks among the groves were crowded with sophists, philosophers, poets, orators, and historians, arguing with one another, reciting their productions, and pronouncing eulogies on their respective countries.

The Olympic course was divided into two parts, the stadium and hippodromus; the former of which was an elevated open causeway, six hundred feet long, being appropriated to the foot races and most of the combats, while the latter was reserved for the chariot and horse races. Pausanius describes the whole with great vivacity. He says, "At the first dawn of day we repaired to the stadium, which was already filled with athletæ, exercising themselves in preparatory skirmishes, and surrounded by a multitude of spectators, while others, in still greater numbers, were stationing themselves confusedly on a hill in form of an amphitheatre above the course; chariots were flying over the plain; on all sides were heard the sounds of trumpets and the neighing of horses mixed with the shouts of the multitude."

The candidates having undergone an examination by the judges that they were clear from all immoral stains, were led to the statue

of Jupiter, within the Senate House, and there sworn that they were freemen, and duly qualified to engage, solemnly vowing not to employ any unfair means, but to observe all the rules with sincerity. After this, they returned to the stadium, and took their stations by lot, when the herald demanded, "Can any one reproach these athletæ with having been in bond, or with leading an irregular life?" A profound silence generally follows this interrogatory, and the combatants became exalted in the estimation of the assembly, not only by this universal testimony of their moral character, but by the consideration that they were free, unsullied champions of the respective states to which they belonged; not engaged in any vulgar struggle for interested or ordinary objects, but incited to competition by a noble love of fame, and a desire to uphold the renown of their native cities in the presence of assembled Greece.

The prize of the simple foot race in the stadium, as it was the most ancient, was deemed the most honourable of any; so much so, that the name of victor was generally associated with the Olympiad, and greeted with it by writers and historians, a great and gratifying distinction. То vary the diversions of the stadium, foot races were afterwards performed by children, by aged men, and by athletæ, who ran twelve times its length. None of the victors were crowned till the last day, but at the end of the race they carried off a branch of palm—an emblem of their insuperable vigor and resolution in triumphing over difficulties. In order to excite the greater emulation, the olive crowns as well as the palm branches were deposited on a table of gold and ivory, placed within view of the competitors and of the whole assemblage. On his receiving the palm, every one pressed forward to see and congratulate the victor; his friends and

relations embraced him with tears of joy, and lifting him on their shoulders, held him up to the applause of the spectators, who strewed handfuls of flowers over him. The gymnastic exercises which bore the name of the Pentathlon, consisted of leaping, running, quoiting darting, and wrestling, the precise form and manner of which it is unnecessary to detail. It included the cæstus, a cruel and dangerous spieces of boxing, in which the hands and arms were furnished with gauntlets, loaded with lead or iron; but as the victor was generally stained with blood, it was never held in much estimation by the Greeks.

Of the horse and chariot races, and of the hippodrome, I shall give a particular account in another chapter.