At some date between this event and the close of the third century, the festival itself was transferred to Argos. Aratus, when engaged in war with Argos, made an attempt to restore the festival to the Cleonaeans who had joined the Achaean league.[[372]] The games were once more held at Nemea, and the athletes who had gone to compete at the rival games at Argos were, in defiance of the sacred truce, arrested and sold as slaves by the Achaeans. But the attempt of Aratus failed, and the festival continued to be held at Argos under Argive presidency. It was at Argos probably that musical competitions were first introduced into the festival. Plutarch[[373]] relates how Philopoemen, after defeating the Spartan tyrant Machanidas in the battle of Mantinea, came to Argos and reviewed his troops before the people assembled for the games. He entered the theatre during the musical competitions at the moment when the musician Pylades was reciting the opening verse of the Persae of Timotheus—
The palm of liberty for Greece I won—
and the whole assembly, struck by the coincidence, with one accord hailed him as the saviour of Greece. Philip V. of Macedon had, some years previously, been appointed by the Argives to preside over the games on the ground that the kings of Macedon were of Argive descent, and the same honour was afterwards bestowed on Flamininus.[[374]] Under the Empire the festival was still celebrated at Argos. Hadrian seems to have revived its glory. He instituted a winter festival, in which the race in armour was a conspicuous feature, and he also revived the hippios or four stades’ race which had fallen into disuse at the Nemea and the Isthmia.[[375]] The Argive coins of Antoninus Pius bear the inscription Νέμεια, surrounded by a celery wreath (Fig. [31]), and the latter occurs still later on the coins of Gallienus. Meanwhile the old Nemean sanctuary had fallen so far into disuse that when Pausanias visited Nemea, he found the temple of Nemean Zeus roofless and the statue of the god gone.
Little is left to-day of the Nemean sanctuary, nor has the site ever been properly excavated. There was no town at Nemea, merely a sanctuary of Zeus with a stadium and a hippodrome, and we must suppose also a gymnasium. The cypress grove in which the temple of Zeus stood has disappeared, and of the temple itself only three pillars are left, sufficient, however, to show that the temple cannot have been much earlier than the close of the fifth century. The site of the stadium is also visible in a deep ravine some 650 feet long, the end of which forms a natural sphendone. There is no trace of hippodrome or gymnasium. There are said to be traces of a theatre, but the statement appears to be doubtful. Possibly the semicircular end of the stadium has been mistaken for a theatre.[[376]]
The Nemea took place on the 12th day of the month Panemos, which seems to correspond approximately to our July. The old idea that the festival was held alternately in summer and winter is now abandoned, and it is generally agreed that the winter Nemea was a local festival founded by Hadrian. The duration of the festival is unknown; it must certainly have lasted several days. The prize, as has been already stated, was a wreath of wild celery (σέλινον), and the officials, who bore the title of Hellanodicae, wore dusky robes of mourning in commemoration of the funeral origin of the games.
The athletic programme, like that of the Isthmia, included numerous events for boys and youths. The boys’ pentathlon was introduced in the 53rd Nemead, and in the next Nemead was won by Sogenes of Aegina; and the boys’ pankration, an event not introduced at Olympia till a much later period, was won by Pytheas of Aegina, and probably by Argeius of Ceos, whose victory at the Isthmia has been already noticed.[[377]] There was also a hippios-race for boys. Races in armour seem to have been a special feature of the Nemea. They were run over the hippios course and were, according to Philostratus, of great antiquity.[[378]]
We hear little of equestrian competitions. The chariot-race and the horse-race are mentioned in the account of the mythical founding of the games by the Seven Chieftains, and the chariot-race was won in the fifth century by Chromius of Aetna, Alcibiades of Athens, and Xenarches of Sparta; after this we hear no more of it. Nor have we any record of the horse-race which, if we may argue from the mythical tradition, probably existed. The site of the hippodrome is lost; Pausanias tells us that its course was twice the length of the stadium.
There was a competition for trumpeters; but we have no record of musical competitions previous to the transference of the festival to Argos. The absence of any mention of musical competitions in the mythological accounts of the founding of the Nemea, and the association of the Nemea with Zeus and Heracles, makes it improbable that these events existed in early times. The only victors in them known to us belong to the time of the Empire. They are either kitharodoi, singers to the lyre, or Pythaulai, players of the Pythian nome on the flute. In late times there were probably dramatic competitions at Nemea, as at the Isthmus.
From the length of the athletic programme and the scarcity of records of other competitions, we may safely infer that the interest of the Nemea was almost entirely athletic. In fact, if Olympia was “the most athletic of all festivals,” Nemea may almost claim second place. At Delphi the musical competitions took precedence of the athletic, at the Isthmus there was a variety of counter-attractions, even at Olympia the chariot-race rivalled athletics in popularity. At the Nemea, previous to their transference to Argos, athletics were supreme.[[379]]
The scanty records of victors in the Nemea seem to show that in the fifth century competitors came mostly from the Peloponnese, from Athens, and from the islands of the Aegean.[[380]] Particularly numerous are the victors from Aegina, though the preponderance of this island in the records may be partly due to the fact of its close connexion with Pindar, most of the Aeginetan victors being known to us from his odes. The Cean inscription, to which reference has already been made, shows that here, as at the Isthmus, the Ceans were constant competitors. The victories of the Oligaethidae of Corinth and the Timodemidae of Athens have been already mentioned. On the other hand, we find few victors at Nemea from either Italy or Sicily. In the succeeding centuries the interest of the festival seems to have declined; the few victors known to us are mostly Peloponnesian; many came from Elis. Under the Empire the only recorded victors are professionals from Alexandria and the powerful cities of Asia Minor.