seventh month of the ancient Athenian year, containing thirty days, and corresponding to our January; or, according to some, to the latter part of January and the beginning of February. It was thus named because it was a favourite time for marriages.

Games, Public, in Antiquity, were contests and spectacles of various kinds, which in the earlier ages at least were intimately connected with religion. The Grecian games were very numerous; and they are traceable by tradition back to the earliest periods of Grecian civilization. Indeed, much of the obscurity which rests on their origin is a consequence and a sign of their high and even mythic antiquity.

Of these, the most celebrated were the Olympic, the Pythian, the Nemean, and the Isthmian games, which were distinguished by the appellation of ἱερά, "sacred." The victors at the Olympic games were accounted the noblest and happiest of mortals, and all means were taken that could show the respect in which they were held. These games were celebrated every five years at Olympia, in Elis, on the west side of the Peloponnesus. Hence the epoch called the Olympiads.

The gymnastic exercises were laid down in a well-planned systematic series, beginning with the easier, and proceeding to the more difficult. Some of these were specially fitted to give strength, others agility; some educated the hands, others the feet. Among the lighter exercises were reckoned running, leaping, quoiting, and hurling the javelin. When skill had been obtained in these, and the consequent strength, then followed a severer course of discipline. This was twofold—simple, and compound. The simple consisted of wrestling and boxing; the compound we find in the Pentathlon (the five contests), and the Pankration (or general trial of strength). The Pentathlon was made up of the union of leaping, running, quoiting, wrestling, and hurling the spear; the Pankration consisted of wrestling and boxing.

Racing may be traced back to the earliest periods of Grecian antiquity, and may be regarded as the first friendly contest in which men engaged. Accordingly the Olympic and Pythian, probably also the other games, open with foot-races. Foot-racing, perfected by systematic practice, was divided into different kinds. When the distance was merely to the end of the course (στάδιον), it was called stadium; if thither and back, it constituted the double course (διόδιος). The longest course was the ὁλόκληρος, which required extraordinary speed and power of endurance. What it involved the ancients have left in no small uncertainty. It is sometimes given as seven times over the stadium; at others, twelve times; at others again, twenty; and even the number of four-and-twenty times is mentioned. These distances will give some idea of the severity of the trial. Indeed one Ladad, a victor at the Olympic games, was so exhausted by his efforts in the long race, that immediately on gaining the honour and being crowned, he fell dead. In the preparatory discipline everything was done which could conduce to swiftness and strength. The exercises were performed with the body naked and well oiled. Minute directions were established in order to prevent foul play of any kind, so that all the competitors might start and run on terms of entire equality. A passage in the Enchiridion of Epictetus will serve to show how rigid was the preparatory discipline: "You wish to conquer at the Olympic games? so also do I; for it is honourable; but bethink yourself what this attempt implies, and then begin the undertaking. You must subject yourself to a determinate course; must submit to dietetic discipline; must pursue the established exercises at fixed hours in heat and cold; must abstain from all delicacies in meat and drink; yield yourself unreservedly to the control of the presiding physician, and even endure flogging." It may well be supposed that the competitors employed all their ability, and displayed the greatest eagerness to gain the prize. The nearer, too, they approached to the goal, the more did they increase their efforts. Sometimes the victory depended on a final spring; happy he that retained power enough to leap first to the goal. The spectators also used every encouragement in their power, these favouring one competitor, those another:

"Verbaque dicentum, nunc, nunc incumbere tenpos, Hippomeno propea. Nunc viribus utere totis."

Statius (Theb. vi. 587) has given a lively picture of some of the practices by which the runners endeavoured to give suppleness and agility to their limbs:

tune rite citatos Explorant, sequuntur gradus, variisque per artes Exstimulant docto languentia membra tumulta. Poplite nunc flexo sidunt, nunc lubrica ferti Pectora collidunt plausu; nunc ignea tollunt Orara, brevemque fugam necopino fine repont.

After the competitors had been called into the lists by the herald, they sometimes tried their strength and exercised their frames by running out and back on the course. Virgil (Aen. v. 376) represents Dares as displaying the size and flexibility of his arms prior to his combat with Eryx:

Osteo ditique humeros latos, alternaque jactat Brachia protensis, et verberat letibus armas.

Corinth was the place where the Isthmian games were celebrated; and these were so called from being held on the isthmus which joins northern with southern Greece—a spot of land most celebrated in Grecian history, alike in martial and commercial matters. In the narrowest part of this tongue of land, between Lechaeum and Schenus, stood the famous temple, sacred to the Isthmian Neptune. It was shaded by a pine grove. Here began the Isthmian games. Here also was a splendid theatre, and a race-course adorned with white marble. Other distinguished works of art adorned and hallowed the vicinity.

If we attempt to trace these games to their origin we are lost in the mists which envelope the mythical periods of the Greek national life. They were obviously connected with the worship of Neptune; the wide diffusion of which tended greatly to secure for the Isthmian games the great celebrity which they enjoyed, calling, as they did, competitors and spectators from all parts. The Persian war gave a new impulse to the Isthmian games. The Peloponnesian war, on the contrary—as being a contest of Greek against Greek—dimmed their glory, and abated their influence. Even when, at a later period, Corinth became a Roman colony, the games, so far from losing their importance, were exhibited under the Caesars with an increased celebrity. They were held every three years, and comprised three leading divisions—musical, gymnastical, and equestrian contests. In the first the tyrant Nero carried off a crown, by destroying his too highly-gifted antagonist. The gymnastic contests were of the same kind in all these games. A few words may here be introduced as to the horse-racing, of which the same kinds prevailed at the Olympic, the Pythian, and the other sacred games. Chariot-races seem to have been practised in the earliest heroic times, since chariots were as early as this used in battle, and the notices which have come down to us refer this kind of sport to the early period now indicated. It stood pre-eminently before other games. The skill and outlay which it required prevented any but persons of distinction—the wealthy, governors, princes, and kings—from engaging in its enjoyments. The Homeric competitors made use in their games of their two-horsed war-chariots, which they occupied each one alone, and drove themselves, though in battle it was not unusual for the reins to be entrusted to a charioteer. In the heroic ages these contests opened the games. To them belonged the highest prizes. In the Olympic games horse and chariot racing gradually branched out into different kinds. So much importance was attached to these games that historians have recorded the exact time when particular kinds were first introduced, and immortal poets sung the praises alike of the victors and their horses. The four-horsed chariot-race had its origin in the 23rd Olympiad. In the 93d Olympiad was held the first contest with-two-horsed chariots. Foals were now made use of, as well as horses. For a time mules also were employed. Other varieties, mostly designed for a display of skill and splendour, came and went as fashion dictated. The number of chariots that might appear on the course at once cannot be accurately determined. Pindar (Pyth. v. 46) praises Arkesilas of Cyrene for having calmly brought off his chariot uninjured, in a contest where no fewer than forty took part. The course had to be gone over twelve times. The urgency of the drivers, the speed and exhaustion of the horses, may easily be imagined. The greatest skill was needed in turning the pillar which marked the extremity of the course, especially when the contending chariots were numerous. How to avoid the danger of collision, how to turn as near the pillar as possible, so as to save ground, were points of the greatest consequence, as Sophocles in his Electra intimates (West's Trans.), Th' Athenian, with consummate art, His course obliquely veered, and steering wide With steady rein, the wild commotion pass'd Of tumbling chariots and tumultuous steeds.

At the Olympic games the prize was simply a chaplet of wild olive. The crowns were laid on a tripod, and placed in the middle of the course, so as to be seen of all. On the same table there were also exposed to view palm-branches, one of which was given into the hand of each conqueror at the same time with the chaplet. The victors, having been summoned by proclamation, were presented with the ensigns of victory, and conducted along the stadium, preceded by a herald, who proclaimed their honours, and announced their name, parentage, and country. The real reward, however, was in the fame which ensued. A chaplet won in the chariot-races at Olympia was the highest of earthly honours. What congratulations from friends; how was the public eye directed to the fortunate conqueror; what honour had he conferred on his native city, and for what office was such an one unfit! What intense and deep delight must his bosom have been filled with when the full acclaim of assembled Greece fell upon his ear, coming in loud salutations and applauses from every part of the crowded course! Then came the more private attentions of individual friends. One brought a chaplet of flowers; another bound his head with ribbons. Afterwards came the triumphal sacrifice made to the twelve gods, accompanied by sumptuous feasting. The poet now began his office, gaining, in some cases, both for himself and the happy victor an unexpected immortality. Music also lent her aid, and his name was sung wherever the Greek language was spoken. In order to perpetuate the memory of these great men, their names and achievements were entered in a public register, which was under the care of suitable officers. A no less privilege was that of having a statue of themselves placed (either at the expense of their country or their friends) in the sacred grove of Jupiter. A perhaps still greater honour awaited the victor on his return home. The conquerors at the Isthmian games were wont to be received in their chariots, superbly attired, amid thronging and jubilant multitudes. One or two other privileges belonged to these victors, such as immunity from public offices, and a certain yearly stipend. If to all this be added the strict scrutiny which competitors were obliged to undergo (in the best ages), so that none could enter the lists but such as were of pure Greek blood and incorrupt in life, none but such as had undergone the required disciplinary training, and (in the case of the chariot and horse races), none but those who could afford to possess and train horses in a country in which, as in Greece, horses, particularly in the earlier ages, were very scarce and dear—it will be seen that the distinction of the prize was not over-rated when it was compared with a Roman triumph, nor that the description of Horace is too highly coloured—

palmaque nobilis Terrarum dominos elevat ad Deos.

At the Isthmian games the prize was parsley during the mythic periods. In later ages the victor was crowned with a chaplet of pine leaves. Parsley, however, appears to have been also employed. If the conqueror had come off victorious in the three great divisions—music, gymnastics, and racing—he was in the Pythian, as well as in the other sacred games, presented also with a palm branch. The names of about seventy persons are preserved who gained honours at the Isthmian games, among which occurs that of the emperor Nero, who is recorded to have gained the victory in the character of harper and that of herald.

These games, taken in connection with the early and long training by which they were preceded, and of which they were both the natural result and reward, were a grand educational system, bearing primarily indeed in favour of the physical development, but also tending directly and powerfully to advance the intellectual and moral culture. The exercises through which the child, the youth, and the man were stage by stage conducted, each in succession becoming more difficult and more complex, as the bodily powers came into play and acquired vigour, were admirably adapted to give that union of strength and beauty in which physical perfection consists, and in which the Greek nations probably surpassed every other known people. The existence of these exercises and these games in each separate state secured the development and activity of those feelings which made his own country to each one dear and venerable; while a narrow and selfish patriotism was greatly prevented, and emotions which embraced the whole Hellenic race were enkindled and fostered by those general meetings which from time to time called together, especially at Olympia, all who were not aliens from the Greek commonwealth, marked out by the use of that noble instrument of speech, the Greek tongue.

Aware of the importance of the training in the gymnasium, Solon took the business under his special care, laying down minute regulations as to time, place, and extent, so that nothing might be left to chance or caprice. Then the school, in general, had its president—gymnasiarch—and each separate department a separate head; as in the case of the torch-race, which had its lampparchy, or government, charged with the office of making, in connection with it, all necessary arrangements. There were, however, two officers whose names and functions strikingly serve to show how greatly these Grecian institutions had a favourable influence on character: the first was the kosmetes, whose name comes from a word (κοσμεῖν) signifying order and beauty, and whose office consisted in the special superintendence of everything fitted to further these high qualities; the other officer was termed sophronistes; and his business was still more intimately conducive to inform the mind, since, as his designation (from σοφρόν) proves, he was required to guide the pupils to ὁράσις, a term for which we have no English equivalent, but which may perhaps be approximately rendered by "sound-mindedness." The elder Athenians were so solicitous to give a right direction to the influence of the gymnasium, the palaestra, and the stadium, that they annually elected ten sophronists (one out of each tribe), and the honour which was attached to the office may be learnt from the fact that in some inscriptions their name stands before that of the gymnasiarchs themselves. The usual province of the sophronists extended beyond the limits of the exercise-grounds, for they exercised over the youth a general legal oversight. Even their play-hours were under the eye of the sophronist. When the young men joined in the solemn procession of the grand national Panathenaea they were under the guardianship of the sophronists. Were they present at the nocturnal festival held in honour of Hebe, they were still attended by and subject to their sophronist. That something even of a sacred character belonged to these preparatory exercises appears from the fact that the kosmetes bore also the designation of ἱερέων (priest), having charge of certain sacrifices.

Were there no other consideration in their favour, yet the severe examination to which candidates for admission to these contests were compelled to submit, would suffice to prove that the general tendency of the games was good. Besides being questioned as to their condition—were they freemen or slaves?—and as to their blood—were they really Greeks?—they had also to satisfy their judges that their characters were free from moral stain. In the public stadium the herald, laying his hand on the head of the candidate, inquired with a loud voice, "Can any one accuse this man of any crime? Is he a robber or a slave? or wicked or depraved in his life?" If he successfully passed this ordeal, the candidate was then conducted to the altar of Jupiter, the punisher of the perjured, where with solemn rites he was required to swear (if he could with truth and safety) that he had gone through the required preparatory course of discipline, and would abstain from every breach of the laws in the contest before him. (On the subject here treated of see Krause's Die Gymnastik und Agonistik der Hellenen; and his Die Pythien, Nemeen und Isthmien. Leipzig, 1841.)

Among the Romans, the amusements of the circus did not materially differ from the Greek agonies or contests celebrated at Olympia, Delphi, and elsewhere, and were certainly of a nobler kind than the frightful gladiatorial fights of the amphitheatres, though sometimes a circus also was polluted by these inhuman exhibitions. The ὅρασις, or beast-fight, was a favourite species of entertainment with that people; and the persons destined to this barbarous kind of amusement were termed bestiarii. They were generally of two classes—1st, voluntary, that is, persons who fought either for amusement or for pay: these were clothed and provided with offensive and defensive weapons; 2d, condemned persons, who were mostly exposed to the fury of the animals unclothed, unarmed, and sometimes bound. As none but the vilest of men were in general devoted to these beast-fights, no punishment could be more ignominious and cruel than what was frequently inflicted on the primitive Christians when they were hurried away "to the lions," as the phrase was.

Of these beast-fights the Romans were passionately fond; and the number of animals which appear to have been from time to time engaged in them is extraordinary. Sylla, during his praetorship, sent into the arena no fewer than 100 lions, which were all slain. Pompey caused the destruction in this way of 600 lions. On the same occasion nearly 20 elephants perished. These numbers, however, are small compared with the slaughter which took place in later periods. Under Titus 5000 wild and 4000 tame animals, and in the reign of Trajan 11,000 animals, are said to have been destroyed. (See also Amphitheatre, and Circus.)