Fig. 189. Plan of gymnasia at Pergamum. (Simplified from Ath. Mitth.)
The general arrangement of the buildings will be sufficiently clear from the accompanying plan (Fig. [189]). The lowest terrace, which was the gymnasium of the boys, consists of a narrow triangle, about 80 metres long and 25 broad at its widest point, divided into two parts by a wall. Its northern side is formed by the retaining wall of the middle terrace, the buttresses of which form niches containing long stone bases on which were placed statues and stelai. One of these stelai contains a list of boys who have passed out into the ranks of the epheboi. The middle terrace forms the gymnasium of the latter. It measures 150 by 36 metres, and contains at its eastern end a small Corinthian temple, the walls of which seem to have been covered with lists of epheboi. The northern side is formed by a long double colonnade, and beyond it to the east a series of rooms, one of which is an exedra open to the front. This double colonnade, which is two metres above the level of the court, seems to have replaced an earlier single colonnade.
The upper terrace is far the most extensive. It contains the gymnasium of the young men, and to the east the thermae or hot baths. This gymnasium is identified on account of its size with what is called in an inscription “The Panegyric Gymnasium,” where doubtless public festivals and competitions were held. It consisted of an open court 36 by 74 metres, surrounded by a Corinthian colonnade of the time of Hadrian, which replaced an earlier Doric building. In front of the pillars are bases on which statues were placed. Numerous rooms opened on to the colonnade, those on the north being especially spacious. One of these, a large hall with an apse at either end, is named by the excavators the Imperial Hall, on account of an inscription which it has on the architrave, “To the Emperors and the Fatherland.” The floor of the court is unpaved, but at the north-east corner is a small circular pavement which may mark the site of a washing-fountain. Along the south side of the gymnasium is a long corridor extending a considerable distance beyond the gymnasium on either side to a total length of 200 metres, which was obviously the xystos or running track, and behind this track are some thirty or more small rooms which may have served as lodgings for competitors. These rooms must have been a late addition; for in the original building there ran underneath the half-open corridor a second vaulted corridor, the windows of which must have been blocked by the later buildings. This covered running track (crypto-porticus) seems originally to have looked out on a fourth terrace dividing the upper and middle terraces, the northern half of which was subsequently occupied by the foundations of the rooms described, while the southern half was dug away so as to form part of the new double colonnade of the middle terrace. From this date the vaulted corridor became useless for athletic purposes. The eastern half of the terrace is occupied by the thermae, with the details of which we are not concerned.
Pending the final publication of the results of the excavations, it is useless to try to determine the uses of the various buildings. Some of these are mentioned in inscriptions. Diodorus, the son of Heroidas,[[841]] a distinguished citizen who filled the office of gymnasiarchos about the year 127 B.C., restored the gymnasium of the young men, and repaired the covered colonnade, περίπατος, surrounding the court. Further, finding that the konisterion or dusting-room was quite unworthy of the gymnasium, he built another at his own expense with a marble exedra in front, and rebuilt in marble the cold bath adjoining it. Metrodorus, whom we have already mentioned, placed several public basins (ληνοί) in the bathroom and improved the water-supply. He placed in the sphairisterion two public basins described as λουτῆρας, which seem to have been used to hold oil, and he also made suitable provision for the safe keeping of clothes. In recognition of these gifts his statue was erected in the paradromis of the gymnasium.
Athletics being an essential part of Greek education, the gymnasia were naturally under the control of the various magistrates charged with the education and discipline of the young. The titles and functions of these magistrates and also of the officials who formed the staff of the gymnasia varied considerably at different times and places, and the differences between them are therefore very ill-defined. To discuss them fully is impossible within the limits of this book, nor would it be profitable, most of the details which we know about them belonging to Hellenistic and Roman periods. I shall, therefore, confine myself to a brief general account of the most important of these officials, referring the reader for fuller details to special works dealing with the subject.
The gymnasiarchos[[842]] must have been originally the magistrate in charge of the gymnasium, and it can only be an accident that the earliest officials of this name whom we know of, the gymnasiarchoi of Athens in the fifth and fourth centuries, had no such general control of the gymnasia and were little more than lampadarchoi, responsible for the training of teams for the various torch-races which were one of the favourite amusements of the Athenian populace. Perhaps the reason for this narrow use of the term was that from the time of Solon, the discipline and education of the young, and consequently the supervision of the gymnasia, was in the hands of a board of ten called sophronistai, while at the close of the fourth century we find a single magistrate, the kosmetes, apparently taking over their functions and exercising supreme control over the epheboi. Hence there was at Athens no room for a special gymnasiarchos such as we find in many Greek states from the third century onwards, and such as must undoubtedly have existed at a much earlier date, if we may trust the obvious meaning of the title.
The gymnasiarchia at Athens was one of the regular leitourgiai or public services exacted from rich citizens for the benefit of the sovereign people. The duty of the gymnasiarchos in early days was to train a team of youths or of boys, or sometimes two teams, for one of the many torch-races. These teams represented the different tribes, each one of which selected a certain number of names of rich tribesmen and submitted them to the King Archon to make the final choice. The selected gymnasiarchos had to collect and train a team, find their instructors, provide oil and torches, and pay for all other expenses. If his team was successful he dedicated a memorial of the victory to the gods, and in return for all his trouble his name figured alone or at the head of his epheboi in the official list of victors, and in records of the victory. He doubtless exercised some authority over the epheboi in his tribe, or at least over those in his team, but had no general control over the public gymnasia.
In Hellenistic and Roman times the gymnasiarchos appears as a sort of minister of education, maintaining discipline among the young, exercising control over the gymnasia, and generally providing out of his own pocket many of the expenses incurred. Sometimes the gymnasiarchia is still a voluntary service. Such was the case at Athens, and in many other states especially in Asia Minor under the Empire. Among the distinguished men who undertook this office we find Marcus Antonius at Athens and at Alexandria, Tiberius and Germanicus at Salamis in Cyprus, Titus at Naples, Hadrian at Eleusis, and, needless to say, Herodes Atticus at Athens. The office was usually held for a year, but was sometimes voluntarily renewed and even continued for life and handed down from father to son. We even hear of women serving as gymnasiarchoi.
Generally in the last three centuries B.C. the gymnasiarchia is not a leitourgia but a public magistracy. The gymnasiarchos is appointed by the assembly and holds office for one year. At Ceos[[843]] he has to be over thirty years of age. An inscription from Phintia[[844]] tells us that he has charge of the epheboi, the neoteroi, and generally of those who use the gymnasia, and of all business connected with the gymnasia. He is assisted by subordinates, sometimes by a hypogymnasiarchos, sometimes by a paidonomos who looks after the younger boys, sometimes by other gymnasiarchoi responsible for youths of different ages. At Teos[[845]] he is charged with the appointment and payment of the hoplomachos and the instructor in the use of the bow and the javelin. He is responsible for the discipline of the young, checks rioting or disorder among them, supervises their education in literature as well as athletics, above all he personally superintends the military training of the epheboi, and organises competitions to test their efficiency, He maintains discipline sometimes with the rod, sometimes by means of fines.