The chariots were generally drawn by two or four horses. Sometimes mules supplied the place of horses. These chariots, upon a signal given, started together. Their places were regulated by lot, which was not an indifferent circumstance as to the victory; for being to turn round a boundary, the chariot on the left was nearer than those on the right, which in consequence had a greater compass to take. They ran twelve times round the Stadium. He that came in first the twelfth round was victor. The chief art consisted in taking the best ground at the turning of the boundary; for if the charioteer drove too near it, he was in danger of dashing the chariot to pieces; and if he kept too wide of it, his nearest antagonist might get foremost.
To avoid such danger, Nestor gave the following directions to his son Antilochus, who was going to dispute the prize in the chariot races. “My son,” says he, “drive your horses as near as possible to the turning; for which reason, always inclining your body over your chariot, get the left of your competitors; and encouraging the horse on the right, give him the rein, whilst the near-horse, hard held, turns the boundary so close to it, that the nave of the wheel seems to graze upon it; but have a care of running against the stone, lest you wound your horses, and dash the chariot in pieces.”
It was not required, that those who disputed the victory should enter the lists, and drive their chariots in person. Their being spectators of the games, or sending their horses thither, was sufficient.
No one ever carried the ambition of making a great figure in the public games of Greece so far as Alcibiades, in which he distinguished himself in the most splendid manner, by the great number of horses and chariots, which he kept only for the races. It is not easy to comprehend, how the wealth of a private person should suffice to so enormous an expense: but Antisthenes, the scholar of Socrates, who relates what he saw, informs us, that many cities of the allies, in a kind of emulation with each other, supplied Alcibiades with all things necessary for the support of such magnificence. Equipages, horses, tents, sacrifices, the most exquisite provisions, the most delicate wines; in a word, all that was necessary to the support of his table or train.
We must not omit, in speaking of the Olympic games, to notice that ladies were admitted to dispute the prize in them as well as the men, which many of them obtained. Cynisca, sister of Agesilaus, king of Sparta, first opened this new path of glory to her sex, and was proclaimed victrix in the race of chariots with four horses. This victory, which till then had no example, did not fail of being celebrated with all possible splendour.—A magnificent monument was erected in Sparta in honour of Cynisca; and the Lacedæmonians, though otherwise very little sensible to the charms of poetry, appointed a poet to transmit this new triumph to posterity, and to immortalize its memory by an inscription in verse.
Of the honours and rewards granted to the victors.—These honours and rewards were of several kinds. The spectators’ acclamations in honour of the victors were only a prelude to the rewards designed them. These rewards were different wreaths of wild olive, pine, parsley, or laurel, according to the different places where the games were celebrated. Those crowns were always attended with branches of palm, that the victors carried in their right hands. As he might be victor more than once in the same games, and sometimes on the same day, he might also receive several crowns and palms.
When the victor had received the crown and palm, a herald, preceded by a trumpeter, conducted him through the Stadium, and proclaimed aloud his name and country.
When he returned to his own country, the people came out in a body to meet him, and conducted him into the city, adorned with all the marks of his victory, and riding upon a chariot drawn by four horses. He made his entry not through the gates, but through a breach purposely made in the walls. Lighted torches were carried before him, and a numerous train followed, to do honour to the procession.
One of the most honourable privileges granted to the athletic victors, was the right of taking place at the public games. At Sparta it was a custom for the king to take them with him in military expeditions, to fight near his person, and to be his guard; which, with reason, was judged very honourable. Another privilege, in which the useful united with the honourable, was that of being maintained for the rest of their lives at the expense of their country. They were also exempted from all civil offices and employments.
The praises of the victorious athlete were, amongst the Greeks, one of the principal subjects of their lyric poetry. We find, that all the odes of the four books of Pindar turn upon it, each of which takes its title from the games, in which the combatants signalised themselves, whose victories those poems celebrate.