Of the second century A. D., we have the following bases: that of Kasia M[nasithea], daughter of M. Betilenos (or Vetulenos) Laitos of Elis, who won ἅρματι πωλικῷ, was found northeast of the Prytaneion;[2431] the upper part of the pedestal of the quadriga of L. Minicius Natalis of Rome, victor ἅρματι τελείῳ in Ol. 227 ( = 129 A. D.), was unearthed in the east wall of the Palaistra.[2432] The base of the statue erected to the herald P. Ailios Artemas of Laodikeia (in Phrygia?) was found 20 meters north of the northeastern corner of the temple of Zeus.[2433]
Of the third century A. D., i. e., after the time of Pausanias, we have these bases: that of P. Ailios Alkandridas, son of Damokratidas of Sparta, twice victor in (?) πάλη, was found northeast of the Byzantine church;[2434] that of Theopropos of Rhodes, who won κέλητι, was unearthed east of the temple of Zeus, just south of the basis of the Nike of Paionios;[2435] the base of the statue of Valerios Eklektos of Sinope, victor as κῆρυξ in Ols. 256, 258–260 ( = 245, 253–261 A. D.), was found in situ in the Palaistra.[2436] We should add for this century also the inscribed bronze diskos, the votive (not victor) offering of Poplios (Publius) Asklepiades of Corinth, which was found 2.5 meters south of the Southwest gate of the Altis.[2437]
A study of these inscriptions shows that the practice of setting up victor statues decreased in the fourth and third centuries B. C., but was revived in the second and first, only to decrease again after the first century A. D. On the other hand, the inscriptions show that the number of “honor” statues correspondingly increased. Of the later statues, most were erected to Eleans; names of victors from Sicily and Italy, and from the older Greek states, as Sparta and Athens, are rare, being replaced by those from Asia Minor and the newer towns of the Greek mainland. This falling off of interest in the games was largely due to professionalism. In the second century B. C., we begin to read in the inscriptions of περιοδονῖκαι, i. e., victors winning prizes at all the four national games, a sure indication of the professional spirit. Even Pausanias mentions two such victors.[2438]
From these inscribed base-fragments, we have knowledge of 61 victors (63 monuments)[2439] who had statues erected to them, though they are not named in the lists of Pausanias. Of the 192 monuments mentioned by Pausanias, 40 are known to us from recovered fragments of bases and statues. So if we assume the same ratio between known and unknown for those not mentioned by Pausanias, we should have the proportion 40 : 192 : : 63 : x, where x would equal 302, making a grand total of 494 monuments, which number can not be far from the actual number of victor statues adorning the Altis.[2440]
OLYMPIC VICTOR MONUMENTS ERECTED OUTSIDE OLYMPIA.
In Chapter I, we showed that frequently statues or other monuments were erected in their native towns as a part of the honor paid to Olympic victors. We shall now give a list of all such monuments set up in various parts of the Greek world which are known to us from notices in ancient literature and from inscriptions.[2441] These, like the statues in the Altis, range in date from the seventh century B. C. to the fourth A. D., and offer still greater variety in the kinds of dedication. It will be best to arrange the list as far as possible chronologically and in numerical sequence, adding the authorities for the dates of the various victories in the footnotes.[2442]
Victors with monuments of the seventh century B. C.:
1. Chionis, of Sparta.[2443] Besides his statue by Myron and the tablet containing a list of his victories at Olympia mentioned by Pausanias (VI, 13.2), the same writer records a similar tablet in Sparta, erected near the royal tomb of the Agids, likewise set up by his townspeople (III, 14.3). The Spartan tablet, like the monuments in his honor at Olympia, was doubtless set up long after the victory, about Ols. 77 or 78 ( = 472 or 468 B. C.).
2. Kylon, of Athens.[2444] Pausanias records that a bronze statue of this victor stood upon the Athenian Akropolis, erected, as he supposes, in honor of his beauty and reputation as an Olympic victor (I, 28.1). Kylon was the leader of the well-known conspiracy of 632 B. C., when he tried to make himself tyrant of Athens.[2445] Furtwaengler has proposed the theory that this monument was not set up in honor of Kylon by the Athenians, as Pausanias says, but that it was a dedication by his family after his Olympic victory.[2446] A. Schaefer,[2447] however, more justly believed that the statue was an expiatory offering for the massacre of Kylon’s companions on the Akropolis,[2448] set up in the time of Perikles, the date of which would account for the “beauty” of the statue. Still another scholar[2449] believes that Pausanias’ remark was called forth by the epigram on the statue.[2450]