t the games in honour of
Antinous took place both at Eleusis and at Athens; and that the
agonothetai, as also the priest of the new god, were chosen from the
Ephebi. The Corinthians, the Argives, the Achaians, and the Epirots,
as we know from coins issued by the priests of Antinous, adopted his
cult;[1] but the region of Greece proper where it flourished most
was Arcadia, the mother state of his Bithynian birthplace.
Pausanias, who lived contemporaneously with Antinous, and might have
seen him, though he tells us that he had not chanced to meet the
youth alive, mentions the temple of Antinous at Mantinea as the
newest in that city. 'The Mantineans,' he says, 'reckon Antinous
among their gods.' He then describes the yearly festival and
mysteries connected with his cult, the quinquennial games
established in his honour, and his statues. The gymnasium had a cell
dedicated to Antinous, adorned with pictures and fair stone-work.
The new god was in the habit of Dionysus.

[1] For example: [Greek: OSTILIOS MARKELLOSOIEREUSTOU
ANTINOOU ANETHEKE TOIS ACHAIOIS] and a similar inscription
for Corinth.

As was natural, his birthplace paid him special observance. Coins
dedicated by the province of Bithynia, as well as by the town
Bithynium, are common, with the epigraphs, [Greek: ANTINOOU E
PATRIS] and [Greek: ANTINOON THEON E PATRIS]. Among the cities of
Asia Minor and the vicinity the new cult seems to have been widely
spread. Adramyttene in Mysia, Alabanda, Ancyra in Galatia,
Chalcedon, Cuma in AEolis, Cyzicum in Mysia, the Ciani, the
Hadrianotheritae of Bithynia, Hierapolis in Phrygia, Nicomedia,
Philadelphia, Sardis, Smyrna, Tarsus, the Tianians of Paphlagonia,
and a town Rhesaena in Mesopotamia, all furnish their quota of
medals. On the majority of these medals he is entitled Heros, but on
others he has the higher title of god; and he seems to have been
associated in each place with some deity of local fame.

Being essentially a Greek hero, or divinised man received into the
company of immortals and worshipped with the attributes of god, his
cult took firmer root among the neo-Hellenic provinces of the empire
than in Italy. Yet there are signs that even in Italy he found his
votaries. Among these may first be mentioned the comparative
frequency of his name in Roman inscriptions, which have no immediate
reference to him, but prove that parents gave it to their children.
The discovery of his statues in various ci