f runners in the stadium; but in course of time so many other
contests were introduced, that the games occupied five days. They
comprised various trials of strength and skill, such as wrestling
boxing, the Pancratium (boxing and wrestling combined), and the
complicated Pentathlum (including jumping, running, the quoit, the
javelin, and wrestling), but no combats with any kind of weapons.
There were also horse-races and chariot-races; and the chariot-race,
with four full-grown horses, became one of the most popular and
celebrated of all the matches.

The only prize given to the conqueror was a garland of wild olive; but
this was valued as one of the dearest distinctions in life. To have
his name proclaimed as victor before assembled Hellas was an object of
ambition with the noblest and the wealthiest of the Greeks. Such a
person was considered to have conferred everlasting glory upon his
family and his country, and was rewarded by his fellow-citizens with
distinguished honours.

During the sixth century before the Christian era three other national
festivals--the Pythian, Nemean, and Isthmian games--which were at first
only local became open to the whole nation. The Pythian games were
celebrated in every third Olympic year, on the Cirrhaean plain in
Phocis, under the superintendence of the Amphictyons. The games
consisted not only of matches in gymnastics and of horse and chariot
races, but also of contests in music and poetry. They soon acquired
celebrity, and became second only to the great Olympic festival. The
Nemean and Isthmian games occurred more frequently than the Olympic and
Pythian. They were celebrated once in two years--the Nemean in the
valley of Nemea between Phlius and Cleonae--and the Isthmian by the
Corinthians, on their isthmus, in honour of Poseidon (Neptune). As in
the Pythian festival, contests in music and in poetry, as well as
gymnastics and chariot-races, formed part of these games. Although the
four great festivals of which we have been speaking had no influence in
promoting the political union of Greece, they nevertheless were of
great importance in making the various sections of the race feel that
they were all members of one family, and in cementing them together by
common sympathies and the enjoyment of common pleasures. The frequent
occurrence of these festivals, for one was celebrated every gear,
tended to the same result.

The Greeks were thus annually reminded of their commo