CHAPTER IX.
And some of the contests at Olympia were put an end to, the people of Elis having resolved to discontinue them. For the pentathlum for boys was established in the 38th Olympiad, but when the Lacedæmonian Eutelidas had won the crown of wild olive, the people of Elis did not care that their lads should train for the pentathlum. So it dropped. And the chariot race and the trotting race, the former established in the 70th Olympiad and the latter in the 71st Olympiad, were both stopped by proclamation in the 84th Olympiad. When they were first instituted Thersius the Thessalian won the prize in the former, and Patæcus an Achæan from Dyme in the latter. In the trotting race the riders used to jump off towards the end of the course and run with the horses still holding the reins, as what are called professional riders do to this day, only the latter employ stallions and have their own colours. But the chariot race is not an ancient invention nor a graceful exhibition, and the people of Elis (who have always disliked the horse) yoke two mules together instead of horses.
The order of the games in our day is to sacrifice victims to the god, and then to contend in the pentathlum and horse-race, according to the programme established in the 77th Olympiad, for before this horses and men contended on the same day. And at that period the pancratiasts did not appear till night for they could not compete sooner, so much time being taken up by the horse-races and pentathlum. And the Athenian Callias was the victor of the pancratiasts. But for the future they took care that neither the pentathlum nor horse-races should stand in the way of the pancratium. And as regards the umpires of the games, the original rules and those in vogue in our day are quite different, for Iphitus was the only umpire, and after Iphitus the posterity of Oxylus, but in the 50th Olympiad two men picked by lot out of all Elis were entrusted with the stewardship of the contests, and this practice of two umpires continued for a very long time. But in the 25th Olympiad afterwards 9 general Umpires were appointed: three for the horse-race, three to watch the pentathlum, and three to preside over the remaining games. And in the 2nd Olympiad after this a tenth Umpire was appointed. And in the 103rd Olympiad, as the people of Elis had 12 tribes, a general Umpire was appointed by each. And when they were hard pressed by the Arcadians in war, they lost a portion of their territory and all the villages in this portion, and so they were only 8 tribes in number in the 104th Olympiad, and had only 8 general Umpires accordingly. And in the 108th Olympiad they returned to the number of 10 general Umpires, and that has continued the number to our day.