“Persuade the younger men to vault on to their horses. It will be best if you supply the teacher for this. The older men may be put up by some one else in the Persian way. To practise the men in keeping their seats over difficult country, frequent riding expeditions are a good thing, but will be unpopular. So tell your men to practise by themselves whenever they are in the open country. But take them out yourself occasionally and test them over all sorts of ground. Give them sham fights in different kinds of country. In order to make them keen about throwing the javelin from horseback,[465] stir up rivalry between the different squadrons and give prizes for this and for good riding and the like. Above all make yourself and your attendant gallopers as smart as possible.”[466]
There were frequent reviews under the eyes of the Boule. In the race-course at the Lukeion there was a sham fight, each hipparchos commanding five squadrons which pursued one another, and then charged front to front, passing through the gaps in one another’s lines. They had, also, to wheel in line. The review was followed by javelin-throwing.[467] Another review was held at the Akademeia, on a course with a hard soil (ὁ ἐπίκροτος)—good practice for cavalry intending to fight in rocky Attica. Here they had, among other manœuvres, to charge at full gallop and suddenly come to a halt.[468]
One of the attractions of the cavalry service was the great Panathenaic procession, where the horsemen played a leading part: an idealised picture of them may be seen on the frieze of the Parthenon. Xenophon gives a series of directions how to make the horses prance and hold their heads up on this great occasion, and suggests devices in gait which will attract popular notice. This and kindred processions must have made recruiting for the cavalry easy.
* * * * *
Swimming seems to have been, as would naturally be expected, an exceedingly common accomplishment in the maritime states of Hellas; even at inland Sparta the boys must have learnt it for their daily plunge in the Eurotas. According to tradition,[469] there was a law at Athens that every boy should be taught reading, writing, and swimming: the proverb for an utter dunce was “he knows neither his letters nor how to swim.”[470] Herodotos distinctly implies that all Hellenes knew how to swim. “The Hellenic loss at Salamis,” he says, “was small. For, as they knew how to swim (as opposed to the barbarians who did not), when their ships were destroyed, they swam over to the island.”[471] He takes it as a matter of course that every sailor could swim. The whole crew of a captured trireme during the Peloponnesian War as often as not jumped overboard and escaped by swimming.[472] In a story in Athenaeus the boys of Lasos, on coming out of the wrestling-school, go off together for a bathe and begin to dive. A friend of Aristippos used to boast to him of his diving.[473] During the blockade of Sphakteria by the Athenian fleet, numbers of Helots swam over from the mainland to the island under water.[474] Scanty and scrappy as they are, these details show that swimming must have been taught to most boys, at any rate if they were ever likely to serve in a fleet. Plato twice[475] uses a metaphor drawn from a man swimming on his back, showing that this method was known. When a young disputant is being severely handled in a discussion, Sokrates intervenes, “wishing to give the boy a rest, since he saw that he was getting a severe ducking and he feared that he might lose heart.”[476] The phrase suggests that the sight of boys learning to swim was familiar. They could learn either in the innumerable creeks and bays of the sea, or in the lakes and rivers, or in diving-pools.[477] There were also various “gymnastic games” which young people played in the water together;[478] but of their nature nothing is known.
It cannot reasonably be doubted that in the maritime states a large proportion of the boys, at any rate of the lower classes, were taught to row, since each trireme required a crew of 200, nearly all of whom had to use the oar. In the good old days, according to the Wasps, the main object was to be a good oar,[479] and rowing-blisters were a sign of patriotism.[480] In an emergency, the Athenians could make the whole citizen force under a certain age embark on the fleet and could win a victory with these rowers; this would have been impossible if the average citizen had been ignorant of rowing.[481] On such occasions many even of the Hippeis embarked: Aristophanes jestingly asserts that in an expedition to Korinth the horses tried also, shouting, “Gee-ho, put your backs into it. Do more work, Dobbin.”[482] Before the close of the war,[483] Charon, the ferryman of Styx, assuming that every Hellene knows the way to row, makes the souls of the departed row themselves across. Boat-races were certainly known at this period. A client of Lusias asserts that he has won a race with a trireme off Cape Sounion.[484] Probably the trierarchoi, the rich men appointed to fit out the State navy, either voluntarily or by regular custom, made the ships race one another. Thus the races would be as much inter-tribal contests as the dithyrambs or torch-races. Two crews of the epheboi of a later date used to race in the two sacred triremes. The vessels sailing out for the Sicilian expedition raced as far as Aigina.[485]
A fragment of Plato the comic poet[486] refers to similar contests:
EXCURSUS I
The “gumnasiarchoi” have created some confusion among those who have discussed Attic ways. Some authorities would make them rich men performing a “leitourgia” and holding a similar position to the trierarchoi and choregoi: others make them officials appointed to superintend the gymnasia.
The gumnasiarchia is certainly reckoned among leitourgiai as a general rule. A speaker in Lusias,[487] giving a list of these duties which he had performed, says: “I supplied a chorus of men at the Thargelia, a chorus of war-dancers at the Panathenaia, a cyclic chorus at the little Panathenaia, I was Gumnasiarchos for the Prometheia and was victorious, then choregos with a chorus of boys, then with beardless war-dancers at the little Panathenaia.” In Andokides[488] a gumnasiarchos at the Hephaisteia is mentioned. The author of the treatise on the Athenian constitution says:[489] “In the case of the choregiai, gumnasiarchiai, and trierarchiai, the Athenians realise that the rich fill the offices and the populace serve under them and get the benefit. So the populace claims to be paid for singing and running and dancing and sailing in the ships.” Now “singing and dancing” belong to the choregiai, and “sailing in the ships” to the trierarchiai. So “running” is left for the gumnasiarchiai. The main feature of the yearly festivals of Hephaistos and Prometheus, which the two earlier passages gave as the scene of the duties of the gumnasiarchos, was a torch-race. It may thus be inferred that the duty of the gumnasiarchos was to collect, and train, a team of his own tribe for the torch-race at these festivals.[490] In connection with this duty, they could prosecute members of their team, or any one who interfered with them, for impiety before the Archon Basileus,[491] since the race was a religious function. They were thus in the sacrosanct position which Demosthenes as choregos claims for himself in his speech against Meidias.
So far the gumnasiarchos is an ordinary performer of a leitourgia, and his duties are confined to providing a tribal team for the torch-races at the Prometheia and Hephaisteia. His team, usually at any rate, consisted of epheboi, as we learn from an inscription describing the victory of Eutuchides with his epheboi.[492]
* * * * *
There is also the law quoted as Solon’s in Aischines’ speech against Timarchos.[493] “The gumnasiarchai (note that it is a different word) “are not to allow any one over age to keep company with the boys at the festival of Hermes in any way whatsoever: if he does not keep all such persons out of the gymnasia, the gumnasiarches shall be liable to the law that prescribes penalties for those who corrupt free boys.” But the orator himself only mentions paidotribai, and special enactments dealing with the Hermaia; there is no mention of a gumnasiarches. The law itself is an addition made in a later period when there was a special officer to control the gymnasia. But there is no evidence for such an official in the days of the independence of Hellas.
One interesting passage remains. “I was gumnasiarchos in my deme,” or country district, says a speaker in Isaios.[494] There must therefore have been local torch-races, for which rich men were called upon to pay and train teams, just as there were certainly local theatrical performances. The passage opens up a prospect of vigorous athletic life throughout the country districts and villages of Attica.
[332] Plato, Rep. 556 B-D.
[333] Xen. Mem. iii. 12. 1.
[334] Plato, Phaidr. 239 c.
[335] Hesiod, Works and Days, 289.
[336] Solon reduced this endowment to 500 drachmai for an Olympian victor, 100 for an Isthmian (Plut. Solon, 23).
[337] Plut. Quaest. Rom. 40.
[338] Plato, Laws, 807 c.
[339] For this their vast appetites were partly responsible. Milo and Theagenes each ate a whole ox in a single day (Athen. 412 f). Astuanax the pankratiast ate what was meant for nine guests (ibid. 413 b).
[340] Xen. Banquet, ii. 17.
[341] Galen, On Medic. and Gym. § 33 (ed. Kühn. v. 870).
[342] Philos. On Gymnastics, 54.
[343] Pausan. v. 21. 10.
[344] Pind. Olymp.
[345] Pindar, frag.
[346] Fragment of Autolukos.
[347] A very bold attack on the Olympian games, which must have caused a sensation in the theatre.
[348] Aristot. Pol. vii. 16. 13.
[349] Lukourg. ag. Leok. 51.
[350] [Xen.] Constit. of Athens, i. 13.
[351] κατέλυσε must mean this, as in [Andok.] ag. Alkibiades, where that gentleman is said to be καταλύων τὰ γυμνάσια by his bad example.
[352] See end of Aristoph. Wasps.
[353] As shown by the beginning of Plato, Lusis, 203 B.
[354] Aristoph. Birds, 141.
[355] Antiphon, Second Tetralogy.
[356] The law quoted in Aischines ag. Timarchos is spurious, being a later interpolation; it cannot therefore be used as evidence.
[357] [Xen.] Constit. of Athens, ii. 10.
[358] The division of the boys into classes by age in the contests points to such a usage. Cp. the ἡλικίαι at Teos.
[359] Later, this was done by a special official, the ἀλειπτής.
[360] Aristot. Pol. iv. 1. 1.
[361] e.g. Plato, Gorg. 504 A; Protag. 313 D; Aristot. Pol. iii. 16. 8.
[362] Plato, Gorg. 452 B.
[363] The paidotribes is distinguished from the gumnastes as the schoolmaster from the crammer. The gumnastes coached pupils chiefly for the great games, while the paidotribes presided over physical training generally, especially of boys, but sometimes of epheboi. See the elaborate discussion in Grasberger, i. 263-268.
[364] Plato, Protag. 313 A.
[365] Ibid. 326 C.
[366] ἀποδυτήριον.
[367] See Thompson, Plato, Phaedr. 239 C., and Eur. Bacch. 456.
[368] Illustr. Plate VI. A.
[369] Illustr. Plates VI. A and VI. B.
[370] See especially the Panathenaic vases in the British Museum.
[371] e.g. Brit. Mus. E 288.
[372] Brit Mus. B 361, E 427, E 288.
[373] Illustr. Plate VIII.
[374] Aristot. Pol. viii. 4.
[375] Aristoph. Clouds, 973.
[376] Anthol. Palat. xiii. 222.
[377] Herod, vi. 127-129.
[378] Athen. 629 B.
[379] Xen. Banquet, ii. 19.
[380] Plato, Laws, 830 C.
[381] Philostratus, On Gymnastics, 55.
[382] Galen, De sanit. tuend. ii. 8.
[383] Grasberger, i. 154.
[384] Described at length, Grasberger, i. 84-98.
[385] Aristoph. Knights, 1238.
[386] See Illustr. Plate VI. A for a wrestling lesson. Lucian, Ass. 8-11.
[387] Oxyrhynchus Papyri, Grenfell and Hunt, Part III. No. 466 (1903). The papyrus is of the second century.
[388] Anthol. Palat. xii. 206.
[389] Isok. Antid. 184.
[390] See Illustr. Plate VI. B for a pankration lesson.
[400] Plut. Alkib. ii. 3.
[401] See Illustr. Plate VII.
[402] See Illustr. Plate V. B.
[403] Illustr. Plate V. A.
[404] Illustr. Plate V. B.
[405] Athen. 584 C, referring to about 320 B.C.
[406] Aristoph. Peace, 357.
[407] Zeno in Athen. 561 C.
[408] Athen. 609 D.
[409] ἀποδυτήριον. See Plato, Charmides, 153 ff.
[410] κατάστεγος δρόμος. Plato, Euthud. 273 A.
[411] Theodoros (Plato, Theait.).
[412] This was often done outside (Plato, Theait. 144 C). The oil-room (ἐλαιοθέσιον) of Vitruvius may be a later invention. This preliminary anointing was called ξηραλοιφεῖν. After the baths they rubbed themselves with a mixture of oil and water; this was χυτλοῦσθαι.
[413] See Xen. Banquet, 1. 7.
[414] Aristoph. Knights, 492.
[415] Philostratus, On Gymnastics, 56. It was usual to be dusted before wrestling.
[416] Xen. Banquet.
[417] For a good bathing scene, see Brit. Mus. Vase E 83. Also E 32.
[418] Philostratus, On Gymnastics, 57.
[419] Plato, Laws, 830 C.
[420] Particular Sophists attached themselves to particular gymnasia and palaistrai which they came to regard as their schools. Mikkos has already occupied the newly-built palaistra in the Lusis, 204 A. Cp. Plato’s position at the Akademeia and Aristotle’s at the Lukeion.
[421] αὐλή (Plato, Lusis, 206 E).
[422] κονίστρα.
[423] Plato, Laws, 830 B.
[424] For the excitement of the spectators and their shouts of encouragement see Isok. Euag. 32.
[425] Some gymnasia provided a large “Room of the Epheboi.” So in Vitruvius’ model.
[426] Athen. 495-6.
[427] Plato, Polit. 294 D, E.
[428] But by the end of the fourth century the teacher of arms becomes an important individual in the training of the epheboi.
[429] Plato, Euthud. 273 A.
[430] Xen. Econ. iii. 13.
[431] Xen. Econ. xi. 18; Banquet, i. 7, ix. 1.
[432] σφαιριστήριον.
[433] Athen. 20 f.
[434] Brit. Mus. E 83, for a picture of this in use.
[435] χυτλοῦσθαι.
[436] Athen. 566 e.
[437] Hunting with Hounds, passim. So Plato in the Laws, with reservations.
[438] Plato, Laws, 795 E.
[439] Aristoph. Frogs, 729.
[440] Lucian, On Dancing, 15.
[441] Athen. 20 d.
[442] Plato, Rep. 396 A, B.
[443] Antiphon, The Choreutes, 11.
[444] Xen. Banquet, ii. 17.
[445] Lakonian and Attic (Herod. vi. 129); Persian (Xen. Anab. vi. 1. 10); Troizenìan Epizephurian Lokrian, Cretan, Ionian, Mantinean in Lucian, On Dancing, 22.
[446] Not necessarily nude, for γυμνός only represents the absence of the armour used in the War-dance.
[447] Plato, Laws, 815 A.
[448] Lucian, On Dancing, 8.
[449] Lucian, On Dancing, 8.
[450] The dance known as γυμνοπαιδική is described in Athen. 631 b, as including representations of wrestling. In 678 b, c, the festival of the Γυμνοπαιδίαι, and the dances in it are referred to, but no mention is there made of wrestling.
[451] Athen. 630 d.
[452] This sketch is drawn chiefly from Antiphon, The Choreutes.
[453] Demos. ag. Midias, 533.
[454] Rivals sometimes tried to interrupt the lessons or bribe the teacher (Demos. Mid. 535).
[455] The situation of Antiphon’s speech.
[456] Demos. Mid. 520.
[457] Xen. Hiero, ix. 4.
[458] Böckh, 212.
[459] Ibid. 221.
[460] Xen. Hipparch. i. 11.
[462] Brit. Mus. E 485.
[463] Mnesimachos, Hippotrophos (Athen. 402 f).
[464] See Illustr. Plates X. A, X. B and the Frontispiece for scenes in a riding-school.
[465] The mark was a suspended shield, Brit. Mus. Prize-Amphora 7, Room IV.
[466] A rough summary of Xen. Hipparch. i. 15-26.
[467] Xen. Hipparch. iii. 6.
[468] Xen. Hipparch. iii. 14.
[469] Petit, Leg. Att. ii. 4.
[470] Plato, Laws, 689 D.
[471] Herod. viii. 89.
[472] e.g. Thuc. iv. 25.
[473] Diogenes Laert. ii. 8. 73.
[474] Thuc. iv. 26.
[475] Plato, Rep. 529 C; Phaedr. 264 A.
[476] Plato, Euthud. 277 D.
[477] Plato, Rep. 453 D.
[478] Galen, de loc. aff. iv. 8. See Grasberger, i. 151.
[479] Aristoph. Wasps, 1095.
[480] Ibid. 1119.
[481] Xen. Hellen. i. 6. 24.
[482] Aristoph. Knights, 600.
[483] Aristoph. Frogs, 200-271, describes a rowing lesson.
[484] Lus. 21. 5.
[485] Thuc. vi. 32.
[486] Plut. Themist. 32.
[487] Lusias, speech 21. 1-2.
[488] Andok. 17. 20.
[489] [Xen.] Constit. of Athen. i. 13.
[490] So