built upon a hill, difficult of access, and on three sides surrounded
by mountains. Its extent was, also, so great, that it had within its
circuit pasture for cattle. It was unprotected by walls or towers; yet
it bravely maintained itself, for a considerable time, against the power
of the Romans. The cruelty and injustice of the Romans during this war
is justly stigmatised, as being altogether unworthy a great and powerful
people. The inhabitants at first gained some advantages over the Roman
forces, till Scipio Africanus was commanded to finish the war, and to
destroy Numantia altogether. With an army of sixty thousand men he began
the siege. He was opposed by the inhabitants with great skill and
courage, though their force did not exceed four thousand men. Finding
themselves, however, greatly pressed, the Numantians gave themselves
up,—first to despair, and then to fury. Their provisions, too, at
length began to fail; and they were constrained to feed upon the flesh
of horses; then on that of their slain companions; and, lastly, they
drew lots to kill and devour each other. After a multitude of
misfortunes, they signified a desire to capitulate; but Scipio having
demanded, that they should surrender unconditionally on the next day,
the Numantians refused; and when they obtained a longer time, instead of
surrendering, they retired and set fire to their houses, and destroyed
themselves; so that not even one remained to grace the triumph of the
conqueror. This, however, has been denied by some writers, who insist,
that a number of Numantines delivered themselves into the hands of
Scipio, and that fifty of them were drawn in triumph at Rome, and that
the rest were sold as slaves. This occurred in the year of Rome 629.
Not a vestige remains, but a few traces at a place called Puente Gavay,
a spot difficult of access[37].
NO. VIII.—OLYMPIA.
This city, known likewise by the name of Pisa, was situated on the right
bank of the Alpheus, at the foot of an eminence called the Mount of
Saturn. It is peculiarly worthy of attention; since it was near its
walls that the most celebrated games, from the institution of which all
occurrences were dated in Greece[38], were held.
For nearly the whole of what follows, in regard to the games, we are
indebted to Rollin; ours being an abstract.
There were four kinds of games solemnised in Greece. The _Olympic_, so
called from _Olympia_, near which they were celebrated after the
expiration of every four years, in honour of Jupiter Olympicus. The
_Pythic_, sacred to Apollo Pythius, also celebrated every four years.
The _Nemean_, which took their name from Nemea, a city and forest of
Peleponnesus, instituted by Hercules, solemnised every two years. And
lastly, the _Isthmian_; celebrated upon the isthmus of Corinth, from
four years to four years, in honour of Neptune. That persons might be
present at these public sports with greater quiet and security, there
was a general suspension of arms and cessation of hostilities,
throughout all Greece, during the time of their celebration.
The Greeks thought nothing comparable to a victory in these games. They
looked upon it as the perfection of glory, and did not believe it
permitted to mortals to desire any thing beyond it. Cicero assures us,
that with them it was no less honourable than the consular dignity, in
its original splendour with the ancient Romans.
We shall confine ourselves to the Olympic games, which continued five
days.
The combats, which had the greatest share in the solemnity of the public
games, were boxing, wrestling, the pancratium, the discus or quoit, and
racing. To these may be added the exercises of leaping, throwing the
dart, and that of the trochus or wheel; but as these were neither
important, nor of any great reputation, we shall content ourselves with
having only mentioned them.
OF THE ATHLETÆ, OR COMBATANTS.—The term athletæ was given to those who
exercised themselves with design to dispute the prizes in the public
games. The art, by which they formed themselves for these encounters,
was called gymnastic, from the athletæ’s practising naked.
Those who were designed for this profession frequented, from their most
tender age, the gymnasia or palæstræ, which were a kind of academies
maintained for that purpose at the public expense. In these places, such
young people were under the direction of different masters, who employed
the most effectual methods to inure their bodies for the fatigues of the
public games, and to form them for the combats. The regimen they were
under was very severe. At first they had no other nourishment but dried
figs, nuts, soft cheese, and a gross heavy sort of bread. They were
absolutely forbid the use of wine, and enjoined continence.
Who, in the Olympic race, the prize would gain,
Has borne from early youth fatigue and pain,
Excess of heat and cold has often tried,
Love’s softness banish’d, and the glass denied.
The athletæ, before their exercises, were rubbed with oils and
ointments, to make their bodies more supple and vigorous. At first they
made use of a belt, with an apron or scarf fastened to it, for their
more decent appearance in the combats; but one of the combatants
happening to lose the victory by this covering’s falling off, that
accident was the occasion of sacrificing modesty to convenience, and
retrenching the apron for the future. The athletæ were only naked in
some exercises, as wrestling, boxing, the pancratium, and the foot-race.
It was necessary that their morals should be unexceptionable, and their
condition free. No stranger was admitted to combat in the Olympic games;
and when Alexander, the son of Amyntas, king of Macedon, presented
himself to dispute the prize, his competitors, without any regard to the
royal dignity, opposed his reception as a Macedonian, and consequently a
barbarian and a stranger; nor could the judge be prevailed upon to admit
him till he had proved, in due form, that his family was originally
descended from the Argives.
They were made to take an oath, that they would religiously observe the
several laws prescribed in each kind of combat, and do nothing contrary
to the established orders and regulations of the games. Fraud, artifice,
and excessive violence, were absolutely prohibited; and the maxim so
generally received elsewhere, that it is indifferent whether an enemy is
conquered by deceit or valour, was banished from these combats.
It is time to bring our champions to blows, and to run over the
different kinds of combats in which they exercised themselves.
WRESTLING is one of the most ancient exercises of which we have any
knowledge, having been practised in the time of the patriarchs, as the
wrestling of the angel with Jacob proves[39].
Wrestling among the Greeks, as well as other nations, was practised at
first with simplicity, little art, and in a natural manner; the weight
of the body, and the strength of the muscles, having more share of it,
than address or skill.
The wrestlers, before they began their combats, were rubbed all over in
a rough manner, and afterwards anointed with oils, which added to the
strength and flexibility of their limbs. But as this unction, in making
the skin too slippery, rendered it difficult for them to take hold of
each other, they remedied that inconvenience, sometimes by rolling
themselves in the dust of the palæstræ, sometimes by throwing a fine
sand upon each other, kept for that purpose in the porticoes of the
gymnasia.
Thus prepared, the wrestlers began their combat. They were matched two
against two, and sometimes several couples contended at the same time.
OF BOXING, OR THE CESTUS.—The combatants covered their fists with a
kind of offensive arms called _cestus_, and their heads with a sort of
leather cap, to defend their temples and ears, which were most exposed
to blows, and to deaden their violence. The cestus was a kind of
gauntlet or glove, made of straps of leather, and plated with brass,
lead, or iron, inside. Their use was to strengthen the hands of the
combatants, and to add violence to their blows.
Boxing was one of the rudest and most dangerous of the gymnastic
combats; because, besides the danger of being crippled, the combatants
ran the hazard of losing their lives. They sometimes fell down dead, or
dying, upon the sand; though that seldom happened, except the vanquished
person persisted too long in not acknowledging his defeat: yet it was
common for them to quit the fight with a countenance so disfigured, that
it was not easy to know them afterwards.
OF THE PANCRATIUM.—The Pancratium was so called from two Greek
words[40] which signify that the whole force of the body was necessary
for succeeding in it. It united boxing and wrestling in the same fight,
borrowing from one its manner of struggling and throwing, and from the
other, the art of dealing blows, and of avoiding them with success.
OF THE DISCUS, OR QUOIT.—The discus was a kind of quoit of a round
form, made sometimes of wood, but more frequently of stone, lead, or
other metal, as iron or brass. Those who used this exercise were called
Discoboli; that is, flingers of the discus.
The athletæ, in hurling the discus, put themselves into the best posture
they could, to add force to their cast. He that flung the discus
farthest was the victor.
The most famous painters and sculptors of antiquity, in their endeavours
to represent naturally the attitudes of the discoboli, have left
posterity many masterpieces in their several arts. Quintilian
exceedingly extols a statue of this kind, which had been finished with
infinite care and application by the celebrated Myron[41].
OF THE PENTATHLUM.—The Greeks gave this name to an exercise composed of
five others:—wrestling, running, leaping, throwing the dart, and the
discus. It is believed that this sort of combat was decided in one day,
and sometimes the same morning; and that the prize, which was single,
could not be given but to the victor in all those exercises.
OF RACES.—Of all the exercises which the athletæ cultivated with so
much pains and industry, for their appearance in the public games,
running was in the highest estimation, and held the foremost rank.
The place where the athletæ exercised themselves in running, was
generally called the _Stadium_ by the Greeks; as was that wherein they
disputed in earnest for the prize. Under that denomination was included
not only the space in which the athletæ ran, but also that which
contained the spectators of the gymnastic games.
The middle of the Stadium was remarkable only by the circumstance of
having the prizes allotted to the victors set up there. St. Chrysostom
draws a fine comparison from this custom. “As the judges,” says he, “in
the races and other games, expose in the midst of the Stadium, to the
view of the champions, the crowns which they are to receive; in like
manner the Lord, by the mouth of his prophets, has placed the prizes in
the midst of the course, which he designs for those who have the courage
to contend for them.”
There were three kinds of races, the chariot, the horse, and the
foot-race.
1. OF THE FOOT-RACE.—The runners, of whatever number they were, ranged
themselves in a line, after having drawn lots for their places. Whilst
they waited the signal to start, they practised, by way of prelude,
various motions to awaken their activity, and to keep their limbs
pliable and in a right temper. They kept themselves breathing by small
leaps, and making little excursions, which were a kind of trial of their
speed and agility. Upon the signal’s being given, they flew towards the
goal, with a rapidity scarcely to be followed by the eye, which was
solely to decide the victory; for the Agnostic laws prohibited, upon the
penalty of infamy, the attaining it by any foul method.
2. OF THE HORSE-RACES.—The race of a single horse with a rider was less
celebrated by the ancients; yet it had its favourers amongst the most
considerable persons, even kings themselves, and was attended with
uncommon glory to the victor.
3. OF THE CHARIOT-RACES.—This kind of race was the most renowned of all
the exercises used in the games of the ancients, and that from whence
most honour redounded to the victors. It is plain they were derived from
the constant custom of princes, heroes and great men, of fighting in
battle upon chariots. Homer has an infinity of examples of this kind.
All those, who presented themselves in the Olympic games to dispute the
prize in the chariot races, were persons considerable either for their
riches, their birth, their employments, or great actions. Kings
themselves aspired passionately to this glory, from the belief that the
title of victor in these games was scarcely inferior to that of
conqueror, and that the Olympic palm added new dignity to the splendours
of a throne.
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.
Sculpture united with poetry to perpetuate the fame of the champions.
Statues were erected to the victors, in the very place where they had
been crowned, and sometimes in that of their birth also, which was
commonly done at the expense of their country. Amongst the statues which
adorned Olympia, were those of several children of ten or twelve years
old, who had obtained the prize at that age in the Olympic games. They
did not only raise such monuments to the champions, but to the very
horses to whose swiftness they were indebted for the Agonistic crown:
and Pausanias mentions one, which was erected in honour of a mare,
called Aura, whose history is worth repeating. Phidolas, her rider,
having fallen off in the beginning of the race, the mare continued to
run in the same manner as if he had been upon her back. She outstripped
all the rest, and upon the sound of the trumpets, which was usual toward
the end of the race to animate the competitors, she redoubled her vigour
and courage, turned round the goal, and, as if she had been sensible of
the victory, presented herself before the judges of the games.
Nor did the entertainments finish here. There was another kind of
competition; and that, too, which does not at all depend upon the
strength, activity, and address of the body, and may be called, with
reason, the combat of the mind; wherein the orators, historians, and
poets, made trial of their capacities, and submitted their productions
to the judgment of the public.
It was a great honour, and, at the same time, a most sensible pleasure
for writers, who are generally fond of fame and applause, to have known
how to reconcile the voices in their favour of so numerous and select an
assembly as that of the Olympic games, in which were present all the
finest geniuses of Greece, and all the best judges of the excellence of
a work. This theatre was equally open to history, eloquence, and poetry.
Herodotus read his history in the Olympic games to all Greece, assembled
at them, and was heard with such applause, that the names of the nine
Muses were given to the nine books which compose his work, and the
people cried out wherever he passed, “That is he, who has written our
history, and celebrated our glorious successes against the Barbarians.”
Anciently, Olympia was surrounded by walls; it had two temples,—one
dedicated to Jupiter, and another to Juno; a senate-house, a theatre,
and many other beautiful edifices, and also an innumerable multitude of
statues.
The temple of Jupiter was built with the spoils, taken from certain
states which had revolted; it was of the Doric order; sixty-eight feet
high, two hundred and thirty long, and ninety-five broad. This edifice
was built by an able architect, named Libon; and it was adorned by two
sculptors of equal skill, who enriched the pediments of the principal
front with elaborate and elegant ornaments. The statue of the god, the
work of Phidias, was of gold and ivory, fifty cubits high. On the one
pediment, Œnomaus and Peleus were disputing the prize of the race in
the presence of Jupiter; on the other was the battle of the Centaurs and
the Lapithæ. On the summit of each pediment was a Victory, of gilt
brass; and at each angle a large vase of the same metal.
This statue was the finest the world ever saw. “Indeed,” says Mr.
Dodwell; and he is borne out by the authorities of all those ancient
writers who have written of it, “it appears to have united all the
beauty of form, and all the splendour of effect, that are produced by
the highest excellence of the statuary and the painter.”
The altar in this temple[42] was composed of ashes from the thighs of
the victims, which were carried up and consumed on the top with wood of
the white poplar-tree. The ashes, also, of the Prytanæum, in which a
perpetual fire was kept on a hearth, were removed annually, on a fixed
day, and spread on it, being first mingled with water from the Alpheus.
The people of Elis sacrificed daily, and private persons as often as
they chose.
Olympia[43] preserved, much longer than Delphi, and with less
diminution, the sacred property, of which it was a similar repository.
Some images were removed by Tiberius Nero. His successor, Caius
Caligula, who honoured Jupiter with the familiar appellation of brother,
commanded that his image should be transported to Rome; but the
architects declared it was impossible, without destroying the work.
The god, in the time of Pausanias, retained his original splendour. The
native offerings of crowns and chariots, and of charioteers, and horses,
and oxen, in brass, the precious images of gold, ivory, or amber, and
the curiosities consecrated in the temples, the treasuries, and other
edifices, could not be viewed without astonishment. The number of
statues within the grove, was itself an amazing spectacle. Many were the
works of Myron, Lysippus, and the prime artists of Greece. Here kings
and emperors were assembled; and Jupiter towered in brass from twelve to
thirty feet high! Let the reader peruse the detail given by Pausanias,
and imagine, if he can, the entertainment which Olympia must then have
afforded to the antiquary, the connoisseur, and historian.
Of all splendour, the temple of Juno alone can be ascertained with any
degree of certainty. The soil, which has been considerably elevated,
covers the greater part of the ruin. The walls of the cella rise only
two feet from the ground. “We employed,” says Mr. Dodwell, “some Turks
to excavate; and we discovered some frusta of the Doric order, of which
the flutings were thirteen inches wide, and the diameter of the whole
column seven feet three inches. We found, also, part of a small column
of Parian marble, which the intervals of the flutings show to have been
of the Ionic or the Corinthian order. The work of ruin, however, is
constantly going on; and lately the people of Lalla (a town in the
neighbourhood) have even rooted up some of the foundations of this once
celebrated sanctuary, in order to use the materials in the construction
of their houses[44]”.
NO. IX.—PUTEOLI.
A maritime city of Campania, between Baiæ and Naples. It was founded by
a colony from Cumæ. It was, in the first instance, called Dicæarchia,
(“Just Power[45],”) and afterwards Puteoli, from the great number of
wells that were in the neighbourhood.
It was delightfully situated on a point projecting into the sea, nearly
in the centre of the bay of Puzzuoli. It was the sea-port of the
inhabitants of Cannæ; and a rendezvous for merchants from Greece,
Sicily, and all parts of Italy. The attractions of the town, also, on
account of its hot baths and mineral waters, allured the more opulent
citizens of Rome to its vicinity.
In the square of the town stands a beautiful marble pedestal, covered
with bas-reliefs, representing the fourteen towns of Asia Minor,
destroyed by an earthquake, and rebuilt by Tiberius. It supported a
statue of that emperor, erected by the same cities as a monument of
gratitude. The cathedral stands on the ruins of a temple, and is built
chiefly of ancient materials.
A temple of Serapis offers many subjects of observation. Half of its
buildings, however, are still buried under the earth thrown upon it by
volcanic commotions, or accumulated by the windings of the hill. The
inclosure is square, environed by buildings for priests, and baths for
votaries; in the centre remains a circular platform, with four flights
of steps up to it; vases for fire, a central altar, rings for victims,
and other appendages of sacrifice, entire and not displaced; but the
columns that held its roof have been removed to the new palace of
Caserta. The temple itself was not discovered till A. D. 1750, on the
removal of some rubbish and bushes, which had, till then, partly
concealed it from observation.