The Ancient History of the Egyptians, Carthaginians, Assyrians Part 7

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; which is not to be wondered at, if we consider whence it arose.

It is plain that it was 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. This custom being admitted, it is natural to suppose it very agreeable to these heroes, to have their charioteers as expert as possible in driving, as their success depended, in a very great measure, upon the address of their drivers. It was anciently, therefore, only to persons of the first consideration that this office was confided. Hence arose a laudable emulation to excel others in the art of guiding a chariot, and a kind of necessity to practise it very much, in order to succeed. The high rank of the persons who made use of chariots enn.o.bled, as it always happens, an exercise peculiar to them. The other exercises were adapted to private soldiers and hors.e.m.e.n, as wrestling, running, and the single horse-race; but the use of chariots in the field was always reserved to princes, and generals of armies.

Hence it was, that 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 eagerly aspired to this glory, from the belief that the t.i.tle of victor in these games was scarce inferior to that of conqueror, and that the Olympic palm added new dignity to the splendours of a throne.

Pindar's odes inform us, that Gelon and Hiero, kings of Syracuse, were of that opinion. Dionysius, who reigned there long after them, carried the same ambition much higher. Philip of Macedon had these victories stampt upon his coins, and seemed as much gratified with them as with those obtained against the enemies of his state. All the world knows the answer of Alexander the Great on this subject.(145) When his friends asked him whether he would not dispute the prize of the races in these games? "Yes,"

said he, "if kings were to be my antagonists." Which shows, that he would not have disdained these contests, if there had been compet.i.tors in them worthy of him.

The chariots were generally drawn by two or four horses, ranged abreast; _bigae_, _quadrigae_. Sometimes mules supplied the place of horses, and then the chariot was called ?p???. Pindar, in the fifth ode of his first book, celebrates one Psaumis, who had obtained a triple victory; one by a chariot drawn by four horses, te???pp?; another by one drawn by mules, ?p???; and the third by a single horse, ????t?, which the t.i.tle of the ode expresses.

These chariots, upon a signal given, started together from a place called _Carceres_. Their places were regulated by lot, which was not an indifferent circ.u.mstance as to the victory; for as they were to turn round a boundary, the chariot on the left was nearer than those on the right, which consequently had a greater compa.s.s to take. It appears from several pa.s.sages in Pindar, and especially from one in Sophocles, which I shall cite very soon, that 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 das.h.i.+ng the chariot to pieces; and if he kept too wide of it, his nearest antagonist might cut between him, and get foremost.

It is obvious that these chariot-races could not be run without some danger; for as the motion(146) of the wheels was very rapid, and it was requisite to graze against the boundary in turning, the least error in driving would have broken the chariot in pieces, and might have dangerously wounded the charioteer. An example of which we find in the _Electra_ of Sophocles, who gives an admirable description of a chariot-race run by ten compet.i.tors. The pretended Orestes, at the twelfth and last round, which was to decide the victory, having only one antagonist, the rest having been thrown out, was so unfortunate as to break one of his wheels against the boundary, and falling out of his seat entangled in the reins, the horses dragged him violently forwards along with them, and tore him to pieces. But this very seldom happened. To avoid such danger, Nestor gave the following directions to his son Antilochus, who was going to dispute the prize in the chariot-race.(147) "My son,"

says he, "drive your horses as near as possible to the boundary; for which reason, always inclining your body over your chariot, get the left of your compet.i.tors, and encouraging the horse on the right, give him the rein, whilst the near horse, hard held, turns the boundary so close 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."

Father Montfaucon mentions a difficulty, in his opinion of much consequence, in regard to the places of those who contended for the prize in the chariot-race. They all started indeed from the same line, and at the same time, and so far had no advantage of each other; but he, whose lot gave him the first place, being nearest the boundary at the end of the career, and having but a small compa.s.s to describe in turning about it, had less way to make than the second, third, fourth, &c. especially when the chariots were drawn by four horses, which took up a greater s.p.a.ce between the first and the others, and obliged them to make a larger circle in coming round. This advantage twelve times together, as must happen, admitting the Stadium was to be run round twelve times, gave such a superiority to the first, as seemed to a.s.sure him infallibly of the victory against all his compet.i.tors. To me it seems, that the fleetness of the horses, joined with the address of the driver, might countervail this odds; either by getting before the first, or by taking his place; if not in the first, at least in some of the subsequent rounds; for it is not to be supposed, that in the progress of the race the antagonists always continued in the same order in which they started. They often changed places in a short interval of time, and in that variety and vicissitude consisted all the diversion of the spectators.

It was not required, that those who aspired to the victory should enter the lists, and drive their chariots in person. Their being spectators of the games, or even sending their horses thither, was sufficient; but in either case, it was previously necessary to register the names of the persons for whom the horses were to run, either in the chariot or single horse-races.

At the time that the city of Potidaea surrendered to Philip, three couriers brought him advices; the first, that the Illyrians had been defeated in a great battle by his general Parmenio; the second, that he had carried the prize of the horse-race in the Olympic games; and the third, that the queen was delivered of a son. Plutarch seems to insinuate, that Philip was equally delighted with each of these circ.u.mstances.(148)

Hiero sent horses to Olympia, to run for the prize, and caused a magnificent pavilion to be erected for them.(149) Upon this occasion Themistocles harangued the Greeks, to persuade them to pull down the tyrant's pavilion, who had refused his aid against the common enemy, and to hinder his horses from running with the rest. It does not appear that any regard was had to this remonstrance; for we find, by one of Pindar's odes, composed in honour of Hiero, that he won the prize in the equestrian races.

No one ever carried the ambition of making a great figure in the public games of Greece so far as Alcibiades,(150) 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. There never was either private person or king that sent, as he did, seven chariots at once to the Olympic games, wherein he carried the first, second, and third prizes; an honour no one ever had before him. The famous poet Euripides celebrated these victories in an ode, of which Plutarch has preserved a fragment. The victor, after having made a sumptuous sacrifice to Jupiter, gave a magnificent feast to the innumerable mult.i.tude of spectators at the games.

It is not easy to comprehend, how the wealth of a private person should suffice for so enormous an expense: but Antisthenes, the scholar of Socrates, who relates what he saw, informs us, that many cities of the allies, in emulation of each other, supplied Alcibiades with all things necessary for the support of such incredible 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. The pa.s.sage is remarkable; for the same author a.s.sures us, that this was not only done when Alcibiades went to the Olympic games, but in all his military expeditions and journeys by land or sea. "Wherever,"

says he, "Alcibiades travelled, he made use of four of the allied cities as his servants. Ephesus furnished him with tents, as magnificent as those of the Persians; Chios took care to provide for his horses; Cyzic.u.m supplied him with sacrifices, and provisions for his table; and Lesbos gave him wine, with whatever else was requisite for his house."

I must not omit, in speaking of the Olympic games, that the ladies were admitted to dispute the prize in them as well as the men; and that many of them obtained it. Cynisca, sister of Agesilaus, king of Sparta, first opened this new path of glory to her s.e.x, and was proclaimed conqueror in the race of chariots with four horses.(151) This victory, of which till then there had been no example, did not fail of being celebrated with all possible splendour.(152) A magnificent monument was erected at Sparta in honour of Cynisca;(153) and the Lacedaemonians, 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. She herself dedicated a chariot of bra.s.s, drawn by four horses, in the temple of Delphi;(154) in which the charioteer was also represented; a certain proof that she did not drive it herself. In process of time, the picture of Cynisca, drawn by the famous Apelles, was annexed to it, and the whole adorned with many inscriptions in honour of that Spartan heroine.(155)

Of the honours and rewards granted to the victors.

These honours and rewards were of several kinds. The acclamations of the spectators in honour of the victors were only a prelude to the prizes designed them. These prizes 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; which custom, according to Plutarch,(156) arose (perhaps) from a property of the palm-tree, which displays new vigour the more endeavours are used to crush or bend it, and is a symbol of the courage and resistance of the champion who had obtained the prize. 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 trumpet, conducted him through the Stadium, and proclaimed aloud the name and country of the successful champion, who pa.s.sed in that kind of review before the people, whilst they redoubled their acclamations and applauses at the sight of him.

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.

The athletic triumph almost always concluded with feasts made for the victors, their relations, and friends, either at the expense of the public, or by private individuals, who regaled not only their families and friends, but often a great part of the spectators. Alcibiades,(157) after having sacrificed to the Olympian Jupiter, which was always the first care of the victor, treated the whole a.s.sembly. Leophron did the same, as Athenaeus reports;(158) who adds, that Empedocles of Agrigentum, having conquered in the same games, and not having it in his power, being a Pythagorean, to regale the people with flesh or fish, caused an ox to be made of a paste, composed of myrrh, incense, and all sorts of spices, of which pieces were given to all who were present.

One of the most honourable privileges granted to the Athletic victors, was the right of precedency 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 advantage was united with honour, was that of being maintained for the rest of their lives at the expense of their country. That this expense might not become too chargeable to the state, Solon(159) reduced the pension of a victor in the Olympic games to five hundred drachmas;(160) in the Isthmian to a hundred;(161) and in the rest in proportion. The victor and his country considered this pension, less as a relief of the champion's indigence, than as a mark of honour and distinction. They were also exempted from all civil offices and employments.

The celebration of the games being over, one of the first cares of the magistrates, who presided in them, was to inscribe, in the public register, the name and country of the Athletae who had carried the prizes, and to annex the species of combat in which they had been victorious. The chariot-race had the preference to all other games. Hence the historians, who date occurrences by the Olympiads, as Thucydides, Dionysius of Halicarna.s.sus, Diodorus Siculus, and Pausanias, almost always express the Olympiad by the name and country of the victors in that race.

The praises of the victorious Athletae were amongst the Greeks one of the princ.i.p.al 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 t.i.tle from the games in which the combatants signalized themselves, whose victories those poems celebrate. The poet, indeed, frequently enriches his matter, by calling in to the champion's a.s.sistance, incapable alone of inspiring all the enthusiasm necessary, the aid of the G.o.ds, heroes, and princes, who have any relation to his subject; and to support the flights of imagination, to which he abandons himself. Before Pindar, the poet Simonides practised the same manner of writing, intermingling the praises of the G.o.ds and heroes with those of the champions, whose victories he sang. It is related upon this head,(162) that one of the victors in boxing, called Scopas, having agreed with Simonides for a poem upon his victory, the poet, according to custom, after having given the highest praises to the champion, expatiated in a long digression to the honour of Castor and Pollux. Scopas, satisfied in appearance with the performance of Simonides, paid him however only the third part of the sum agreed on, referring him for the remainder to the Tyndaridae, whom he had celebrated so well. And in fact he was well paid by them, if we may believe the sequel; for, at the feast given by the champion, whilst the guests were at table, a servant came to Simonides, and told him, that two men, covered with dust and sweat, were at the door, and desired to speak with him in all haste. He had scarce set his foot out of the chamber, in order to go to them, when the roof fell in, and crushed the champion, with all his guests, to death.

Sculpture united with poetry to perpetuate the fame of the champions.

Statues were erected to the victors, especially in the Olympic games, 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(163) 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 compet.i.tors, she redoubled her vigour and courage, turned round the goal; and, as if she had been sensible that she had gained the victory, presented herself before the judges of the games. The Eleans declared Phidolas victor, with permission to erect a monument to himself and the mare, that had served him so well.

The different Taste of the Greeks and Romans, in regard to Public Shows.

Before I make an end of these remarks upon the combats and games so much in estimation amongst the Greeks, I beg the reader's permission to make a reflection, that may serve to explain the difference of character between the Greeks and Romans, with regard to this subject.

The most common entertainment of the latter, at which the fair s.e.x, by nature tender and compa.s.sionate, were present in throngs, was the combat of the gladiators, and of men with bears and lions; in which the cries of the wounded and dying, and the abundant effusion of human blood, supplied a grateful spectacle for a whole people, who feasted their cruel eyes with the savage pleasure of seeing men murder one another in cool blood; and in the times of the persecutions, with the tearing in pieces of old men and infants, of women and tender virgins, whose age and weakness are apt to excite compa.s.sion in the hardest hearts.

In Greece these combats were absolutely unknown, and were only introduced into some cities, after their subjection to the Roman people. The Athenians, however, whose distinguis.h.i.+ng characteristics were benevolence and humanity, never admitted them into their city;(164) and when it was proposed to introduce the combats of the gladiators, that they might not be outdone by the Corinthians in that point, "First throw down," cried out an Athenian(165) from the midst of the a.s.sembly, "throw down the altar, erected above a thousand years ago by our ancestors to Mercy."

It must be allowed that in this respect the conduct and wisdom of the Greeks were infinitely superior to that of the Romans. I speak of the wisdom of Pagans. Convinced that the mult.i.tude, too much governed by the objects of sense to be sufficiently amused and entertained with the pleasures of the understanding, could be delighted only with sensible objects, both nations were studious to divert them with games and shows, and such external contrivances, as were proper to affect the senses; in the inst.i.tution of which, each evinced and followed its peculiar inclination and disposition.

The Romans, educated in war, and accustomed to battles, always retained, notwithstanding the politeness upon which they piqued themselves, something of their ancient ferocity; and hence it was, that the effusion of blood, and the murders exhibited in their public shows, far from inspiring them with horror, formed a grateful entertainment to them.

The insolent pomp of triumphs flowed from the same source, and argued no less inhumanity. To obtain this honour, it was necessary to prove, that eight or ten thousand men had been killed in battle. The spoils, which were carried with so much ostentation, proclaimed, that an infinity of worthy families had been reduced to the utmost misery. The innumerable troop of captives had been free persons a few days before, and were often distinguishable for honour, merit, and virtue. The representation of the towns that had been taken in the war, explained that they had sacked, plundered, and burnt the most opulent cities; and had either destroyed or enslaved their inhabitants. In short, nothing was more inhuman, than to drag kings and princes in chains before the chariot of a Roman citizen, and to insult their misfortunes and humiliation in that public manner.

The triumphal arches, erected under the emperors, where the enemies appeared with chains upon their hands and legs, could proceed only from a haughty fierceness of disposition, and an inhuman pride, that took delight in immortalizing the shame and sorrow of subjected nations.

The joy of the Greeks after a victory was far more modest.(166) They erected trophies indeed, but of wood, a substance of no long duration, which time would soon consume; and these it was prohibited to renew.

Plutarch's reason for this is admirable.(167) After time had destroyed and obliterated the marks of dissension and enmity that had divided nations, it would have been the excess of odious and barbarous animosity, to have thought of reestablis.h.i.+ng them, to perpetuate the remembrance of ancient quarrels, which could not be buried too soon in silence and oblivion. He adds, that the trophies of stone and bra.s.s, since subst.i.tuted to those of wood, reflect no honour upon those who introduced the custom.

I am pleased with the grief depicted on Agesilaus's countenance,(168) after a considerable victory, wherein a great number of his enemies, that is to say, of Greeks, were left upon the field, and to hear him utter with sighs and groans, these words, so full of moderation and humanity: "Oh unhappy Greece, to deprive thyself of so many brave citizens, and to destroy those who had been sufficient to have conquered all the Barbarians!"

The same spirit of moderation and humanity prevailed in the public shows of the Greeks. Their festivals had nothing mournful or afflictive in them.

Every thing in those feasts tended to delight, friends.h.i.+p, and harmony: and in that consisted one of the greatest advantages which resulted to Greece, from the solemnization of these games. The republics, separated by distance of country, and diversity of interests, having the opportunity of meeting from time to time, in the same place, and in the midst of rejoicing and festivity, allied themselves more strictly with one another, stimulated each other against the Barbarians and the common enemies of their liberty, and made up their differences by the mediation of some neutral state in alliance with them. The same language, manners, sacrifices, exercises, and wors.h.i.+p, all conspired to unite the several little states of Greece into one great and formidable nation; and to preserve amongst them the same disposition, the same principles, the same zeal for their liberty, and the same fondness for the arts and sciences.

Of the Prizes of Wit, and the Shows and Representations of the Theatre.

I have reserved for the conclusion of this head another kind of compet.i.tion, 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 censure and judgment of the public. The emulation in this sort of dispute was so much the more lively and ardent, as the victory in question might justly be deemed to be infinitely superior to all others, because it affects the man more nearly, is founded on his personal and internal qualities, and decides upon the merit of his intellectual capacity; which are advantages we are apt to aspire after with the utmost vivacity and pa.s.sion, and of which we are least of all inclined to renounce the glory to others.

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 unite in their favour the suffrages of so numerous and select an a.s.sembly as that of the Olympic games; in which were present all the finest geniuses of Greece, and all who were most capable of judging of the excellency of a work. This theatre was equally open to history, eloquence, and poetry.

Herodotus read his history(169) at the Olympic games to all Greece, a.s.sembled 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 pa.s.sed, "That is he, who has written our history, and celebrated our glorious successes against the Barbarians so excellently."

All who had been present at the games, caused afterwards every part of Greece to resound with the name and glory of this ill.u.s.trious historian.

Lucian, who writes the fact which I have related, adds, that after the example of Herodotus, many of the sophists and rhetoricians went to Olympia, to read the harangues of their composing; finding that the shortest and most certain method of acquiring a great reputation in a little time.

Plutarch observes,(170) that Lysias, the famous Athenian orator, contemporary with Herodotus, p.r.o.nounced a speech in the Olympic games, wherein he congratulated the Greeks upon their reconciliation with each other, and their having united to reduce the power of Dionysius the Tyrant, as upon the greatest action they had ever done.

We may judge of the eagerness of the poets to signalize themselves in these solemn games, from that of Dionysius himself.(171) That prince, who had the foolish vanity to believe himself the most excellent poet of his time, appointed readers, called in Greek, ?a??d?? (_Rhapsodists_,) to read several pieces of his composing at Olympia. When they began to p.r.o.nounce the verses of the royal poet, the strong and harmonious voices of the readers occasioned a profound silence, and they were heard at first with the greatest attention, which continually decreased as they went on, and turned at last into downright horse-laughs and hooting; so miserable did the verses appear. He comforted himself for this disgrace by a victory he gained some time after in the feast of Bacchus at Athens, in which he caused a tragedy of his composition to be represented.(172)

The disputes of the poets in the Olympic games were nothing, in comparison with the ardour and emulation that prevailed at Athens; which is what remains to be said upon this subject, and therefore I shall conclude with it: taking occasion to give my readers, at the same time, a short view of the shows and representations of the theatre of the ancients.

Those who would be more fully informed on this subject, will find it treated at large in a work lately made public by the reverend father Brumoi the Jesuit; a work which abounds with profound knowledge and erudition, and with reflections entirely new, deduced from the nature of the poems of which it treats. I shall make considerable use of that piece, and often without citing it; which is not uncommon with me.