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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 December 2013
The difficulty of this question is due to the scanty and unsatisfactory character of the literary evidence. Such evidence as we do possess consists of a few allusions in early classical authors, mostly poetical and metaphorical, and of the explanations of these passages given by scholiasts and lexicographers of uncertain date and authority. The question can only be solved by framing hypotheses which will explain as far as possible these scanty allusions. But in such a case it is not sufficient for a hypothesis to satisfy the literary evidence; it must also conform to common sense and probability. We may take it for granted—and the more one studies the subject, the more certain one feels—that the Greeks possessed a knowledge of athletics little, if at all, inferior to our own. Now there are two conditions which are essential to the success of an athletic meeting—Fairness and Order. The arrangements must ensure absolute fairness for all competitors, and they must ensure the comfort of spectators and competitors alike by avoiding useless waste of time, frequent shifting of the scene, unnecessary repetitions, or tedious complications.
1 Oxyrhynchus Papyri, ii. 88.
2 Schol. Aristides, , Pan. Frommel p. 112 Google Scholar.
3
4 Hermann, De Sogenis Aeginetae victoria, p. 9 Google Scholar.
5 Marquardt, Gymn. Programm. Güstrow, 1886, pp. 18, 19Google Scholar. Since writing the above I find Hermann's view restated and defended by Dr. Haggenmüller in ‘Der Aufeinanderfolge der Kämpfe im Pentathlon’ (München, 1892). To prove his point he actually proposes to emend the passage in Pausanias by omitting the γάρ in καί γάρ, and proceeds to translate it, ‘he was first of all competitors in two events, i.e. throwing the diskos and the spear, and further beat Hieronymus in running and jumping.’ A theory which requires such gratuitous emendation surely needs no further comment.
6 From the frequent allusions to ‘three falls’ in wrestling, I assume that there were if necessary five bouts, but there may sometimes have been only three bouts, in which case two falls would decide the victory.
7 Pinder, , Ueber den Fünfkampf der Hellenen, Berl. 1867 Google Scholar.
8
Plut, . Quaest. Symp.
ix. 2
Google Scholar: 
9 J.H.S. i. pp. 217–218.
10 J.H.S. i. pp. 210 seq.
11 op. cit. 219.
12 Marquardt op. cit. pp. 20, 21. The idea that the Greeks raced in soft sand is I believe entirely unfounded. It is based on Lucian's statement about runners practising in sand. The ground at Olympia is very hard in summer, was it broken up carefully before the race?
13
This distinction must be connected rather with the training places than with the actual sports. Thus Cleisthenes provided for the suitors of Agarista 
(Hdt. vi. 126), and Pausanias mentions at Olympia besides the Gymnasium ‘where they practise for the Pentathlon and the races,’ a smaller enclosure ‘where the athletes practise wrestling’ (Paus. vi. 21). In the later form of the Stadium the semicircular theatre 
would be the natural place for such events as boxing or wrestling. The simpler rectangular Stadium of Olympia however would be less convenient for such contests. Still it is no longer possible to argue from this passage in Xenophon that the wrestling usually took place in the Altis. For Martin Faber has shown (Philologies, L. 495) that the following sentence—
—suggests that this arrangement was the exception rather than the rule (cf.
Bury, , Hist of Greece, p. 621
Google Scholar). The passage does not seem however decisive of what took place at Olympia.
14 Frazer, Pausanias iii. 488 Google Scholar.
15 Bacchylides ix. 30–36 with F. G. Kenyon' note:
16 Schol. Lucian, ad Somn. seu Gall. 6 Google Scholar.
17 J.H.S. vol. ii. 217.
18 Marquardt, op. cit. pp. 16, seq.
19 Phil, . Gymn. 3 Google Scholar.
20 Fedde, , Ueber den Fünfkampf d. Hell., Leipsig, 1889 Google Scholar.
21 § 1.
22
Phil, , Gymn.
31
Google Scholar cf. 11 
23
Aristot, . Rhet.
1
Google Scholar. 5 
cf.
Plato,
Amat.
135 D. E.Google Scholar
24 Pind. Ol. xiii.
25 Pausanias v. 27. 8, vi. 3. 10.
26 ibid. v. 7. 4.
27
Libanius,
ὑπὲρ τῶν ὀρχήοτρ p. 373
Google Scholar t. iii. Reiske 
28 Pollux iii. 30. 151. For the whole subject cf. Krause, , Gymn. und Agon. der Hell., pp. 482–484 Google Scholar and J.H.S. i. p. 215.
29 Fedde, , Gymn. Programm. Breslau, 1888 Google Scholar, and Ueber den Fünfkampf der Hell., Leipsig, 1889.
30 Faber, , Zum Fünfkampf d. Hell., Philologue L. (1891)Google Scholar. Faber gives good reasons for believing that the number of competitors would seldom exceed twelve. There is some evidence for a small number in wrestling and boxing competitions; cf. Lucian, , Hermot. 40 Google Scholar. Dr. Haggenmüller (op. cit.) also criticizes this theory at length, but his own theory is perhaps still more improbable. He supposes that the first four events were merely test events, in which a certain standard only was required. All who had passed these tests were left in for the wrestling which practically decided the prize. Apart from the undue importance which this theory assigns to wrestling, it is surely ridiculous to degrade into test exercises those events which were peculiar to the Pentathlon.
31 A very weak testimony, for Prof. Mahaffy has shown how very unreliable is the evidence of the early Olympic Register, J.H.S. vol. ii. Krause, op. cit. p. 782, mentions a Boeotian Acastides, who is named in an inscription as winning both events at Athens.
32 Plato, , Amat. p. 135 Google Scholar, D, E.
33 Xenophon, , Symposium, ii. 17 Google Scholar.
34 Instances of Pentathletes winning other competitions are remarkably rare. Eutelidas and Acastides as I have mentioned won victories in wrestling, Phayllus and Xenophon in the Stadium race ( Xenophon's, double victory in one day was a record, Pind. Ol. xii. 31)Google Scholar. Several Pentathletes won in the δίαυλος, or in the armed race, Gorgos of Elis (Paus. vi. 15, 9), Eraton, , Ol. 135 Google Scholar, Kranaos, Ol. 231 Google Scholar ( Krause, , Olympia. 280, 312Google Scholar). Such double victories would naturally be more frequent in the more local games. At Athens, Bion and Timocles won the Stadium, and Callias the armed race as well the Pentathlon, , C.I.A. ii. 2, 966, 968Google Scholar.
35 Cf. the attitudes of discoboloi and jumpers in vase-paintings; cf. Jüthner, , Antike Turngeräthe, p. 14 Google Scholar.
36 So Faber, op. cit. ‘So konnte es meines Erachtens sehr, wohl öfters vorkommen dass einer in drei Uebungen der erste war.’ I had worked out my views on this question before reading Dr. Faber's article, and though I am not indebted to him for my arguments, I have carefully noted those points where our arguments coincide, because on practical questions two independent witnesses are better than one.
37 Hdt., ix. 33.
38 Bacchylides, ix. l.c.
39 It is difficult to find a modern analogy. In a championship meeting all the competitors have specialised for one event. Perhaps the nearest analogy is offered by the sports of a large Public school. Schoolboys do not specialise in athletics and the chief events are usually divided between two or three boys. But of course such a competition is too limited for a true comparison.
40 cf. Faber, op. cit. p. 490.
41 cf. Marquardt, op. cit. p. 5. Faber, op. cit. p. 469.
42 This is surely simpler than Faber's explanation ‘Infolge einer Vergleichung mit denjenigen unter den Fünfkämpfern, welche in der Hoffnung auf der Sieg nur in drei Stücken zu siegen suchen (d. h. sich nur in diesen üben).’ One would expect the metaphor to be derived from those who were manifestly victors, not from those who hoped to be.
43 I refer to the time before the tenth event was added.
44 Were dead heats unknown in the Pentathlon? It would be strange if they were. Homer's account of the chariot race certainly suggests the possibility and so does Virgil in the footrace:
Transeat elapsus prior, ambiguumve relinquat. cf. Herodotus v. 22. 
45
cf.
Philostr, . Gymn.
33
Google Scholar Leonidas in four Olympiads 
Cf. Faber, op. cit. p. 490.
46 cf. Faber, op. cit. p. 491.
47
This I take to be the meaning of
Philostratus, , Gymn.
11
Google Scholar. The Pentathlete in training, he says, 
Faber, wrongly in my opinion, explains these words as the three events in which each Pentathlete specialised in the hope of victory, an idea which seems to mo contrary to the spirit of the Pentathlon.
48 cf. Gardner, P., J.H.S. i. p. 215 Google Scholar. In the British Museum vases B 134, 576, E 58 (repeated on each side of cylix) E 96. 164 (halteres on the ground). cf. Gerhard, A. V. 39. 259, 294. Annal. Inst. 1846 Google Scholar M.
49 Holwerda, , Arch. Zeit. 1881, pp. 206 Google Scholar, seq.
50 Phil., Gymn. 3 Google Scholar.
51 Thuc. vi. 16. 2
52 pp. 469 seq.
53 Plato, , Amat. 135 Google Scholar C—136 C, 138 E.
54
Aristides,
Life of Pythagoras, Bekker
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55
Longinus, Jahn, p. 55, Toupius ch. 34. The latter reads 
and in his note p. 310 rightly explains the passage.
56 cf. Hauser, , Jahrbuch Arch. Inst., 1895, 193 Google Scholar, n. 15.
57 Whether the spear was thrown at a mark or for distance, is very doubtful. Faber brings forward very strong arguments in favour of a distance throw, cf. Jüthner, op. cit. pp. 54, seq.
