The following discussion of Hippias and his Olympic victor list is divided into nine sections. The first section (2.1) reviews the evidence that links the earliest cumulative catalog of Olympic victors to Hippias and fixes a date of c. 400 for the appearance of his Olympionikai. The second section (2.2) explores the historical context in which Hippias produced his Olympionikai. The conclusions from Sections 2.1 and 2.2 are then used, along with the relevant ancient sources, to establish insofar as possible the content of Hippias' Olympionikai (2.3). The single most debated question in the previous scholarship on Olympionikai has been whether Hippias drew on archival sources, and hence simply published existing records, or whether he used a diverse array of sources and thus actually compiled the Olympic victor list himself. This controversy is of some importance because, if Hippias did not have archival sources at his disposal, the accuracy of the early parts of the Olympic victor list must be considered dubious. After a review of the previous scholarship (2.4), the evidence for documentary sources from the eighth century is examined (2.5), as are inconsistencies in the dates given in the ancient sources for early events at Olympia (2.6). The conclusion that Hippias compiled rather than published the first Olympic victor list means that it is necessary to explore the nature of the sources on which he drew in doing so (2.7) and the means by which he established 776 as the date for the first Olympiad (2.8).