Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- List of Tables
- Preface
- A Note on Terminology, Transliterations, and Editions
- 1 An Introduction to Olympic Victor Lists
- 2 Hippias of Elis and the First Olympic Victor List
- 3 Olympionikon Anagraphai and Standard Catalogs of Olympic Victors
- 4 Olympiad Chronographies
- 5 Olympiad Chronicles
- 6 Conclusion
- Appendices
- 1.1 Scopas
- 1.2 Tiberius Claudius Polybius
- 1.3 Aristodemus of Elis
- 2 Hippias of Elis
- 3.1 Aristotle's Olympionikon Anagraphe
- 3.2 Eratosthenes' Olympionikon Anagraphe
- 3.3 The Aristotelian Pythionikai
- 3.4 POxy II 222
- 3.5 IG II2 2326
- 4.1 The Eusebian Olympic Victor List
- 4.2 Timaeus of Tauromenium
- 4.3 Dionysius of Halicarnassus
- 5.1 Philochorus
- 5.2 Ctesicles
- 5.3 Diodorus Siculus
- 5.4 Castor of Rhodes
- 5.5 Dionysius of Halicarnassus
- 5.6 Thallus
- 5.7 Phlegon
- 5.8 POxy XVII 2082
- 5.9 POxy I 12
- 5.10 Cassius Longinus
- 5.11 Dexippus
- 6 A Catalog of Olympic Victors Before Hippias?
- 7 Aristotle on the Foundation of the Olympic Truce and of the Olympic Games
- 8 Olympiads and Pankration Victors in Thucydides
- 9 More on the Accuracy of Hippias' Olympic Victor Catalog
- 10 The Olympic Victor List and the First Messenian War
- 11 Memorization and the olympic victor list
- 12 Hippias' Calculation of the Date of 776
- 13 The Spartan King Lists
- 14 Variant Olympiad Dating Systems
- 15 Menaechmus of Sicyon's Pythikos
- 16 The Sicyonian Anagraphe
- 17 Relationships between Olympionikai
- Bibliography
- General Index
- Index Locorum
12 - Hippias' Calculation of the Date of 776
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 November 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- List of Tables
- Preface
- A Note on Terminology, Transliterations, and Editions
- 1 An Introduction to Olympic Victor Lists
- 2 Hippias of Elis and the First Olympic Victor List
- 3 Olympionikon Anagraphai and Standard Catalogs of Olympic Victors
- 4 Olympiad Chronographies
- 5 Olympiad Chronicles
- 6 Conclusion
- Appendices
- 1.1 Scopas
- 1.2 Tiberius Claudius Polybius
- 1.3 Aristodemus of Elis
- 2 Hippias of Elis
- 3.1 Aristotle's Olympionikon Anagraphe
- 3.2 Eratosthenes' Olympionikon Anagraphe
- 3.3 The Aristotelian Pythionikai
- 3.4 POxy II 222
- 3.5 IG II2 2326
- 4.1 The Eusebian Olympic Victor List
- 4.2 Timaeus of Tauromenium
- 4.3 Dionysius of Halicarnassus
- 5.1 Philochorus
- 5.2 Ctesicles
- 5.3 Diodorus Siculus
- 5.4 Castor of Rhodes
- 5.5 Dionysius of Halicarnassus
- 5.6 Thallus
- 5.7 Phlegon
- 5.8 POxy XVII 2082
- 5.9 POxy I 12
- 5.10 Cassius Longinus
- 5.11 Dexippus
- 6 A Catalog of Olympic Victors Before Hippias?
- 7 Aristotle on the Foundation of the Olympic Truce and of the Olympic Games
- 8 Olympiads and Pankration Victors in Thucydides
- 9 More on the Accuracy of Hippias' Olympic Victor Catalog
- 10 The Olympic Victor List and the First Messenian War
- 11 Memorization and the olympic victor list
- 12 Hippias' Calculation of the Date of 776
- 13 The Spartan King Lists
- 14 Variant Olympiad Dating Systems
- 15 Menaechmus of Sicyon's Pythikos
- 16 The Sicyonian Anagraphe
- 17 Relationships between Olympionikai
- Bibliography
- General Index
- Index Locorum
Summary
As pointed out in Section 2.8, Hippias could have calculated a date for the first Olympiad in one of five ways. He may have assembled the most complete possible list of Olympic victors and ended up with a register that began in 776. He may have worked backward from the earliest written records to 776 using oral traditions or numerology. He may have used written records, synchronizations, or generational reckoning to place a major reform of the Olympics in the years corresponding to 576 or 476 and worked backward from there to 776 using oral traditions or numerology. He may have synchronized the first Olympiad with the outbreak of the First Messenian War and provided a date for that war, and hence the first Olympiad, using the Spartan king list. Or he may have linked what he believed to be the first of the series of continuous Olympiads to a specific individual and then established a date for that individual by means of a king list with regnal years or by generational reckoning.
The most likely possibility is that when Hippias calculated the date of 776, he linked the first Olympiad to Lycurgus and then made use of Lycurgus' connection to the kings of Sparta, of the Spartan king list, and of generational reckoning. This possibility is treated in detail in Section 2.8. The discussion here centers on the other four scenarios, which are less likely but which cannot be ruled out.
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- Olympic Victor Lists and Ancient Greek History , pp. 491 - 504Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2007