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Greek Record-Keeping and Record-Breaking

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

Marcus N. Tod
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Extract

The celebration of the revived Olympic games in London in the summer of 1948 gave to ‘records’ an unusually prominent place in men's thoughts and in their speech and writing, and we instinctively turn back to the ancient Greek world, which witnessed the foundation of the Olympic festival and its long history of wellnigh twelve centuries, to seek traces of any similar phenomenon.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Classical Quarterly , Volume 43 , Issue 3-4 , July 1949 , pp. 105 - 112
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1949

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References

page 105 note 1 Anth. Pal. iii. 28. For a critical examination of this epigram seeGardiner, E. N., JHS xxiv. 70Google Scholar ff., who maintains that ‘it is absolutely worthless, and such as no historian would think of recognising’ (p. 79).

page 106 note 1 Iliad, 5. 786.

page 106 note 2 Iv 0l 153, SIG 36 B; cf. Paus. 6. 6. 5,11. 2.

page 106 note 3 That this, not Theagenes, is the true form of the name appears from SIG 36 A (quoted below), as is pointed out in Pomtow's note ad loc.; cf.Launey, M., Rev. Arch, xviii (1941), 22Google Scholar f., 49, and, for his cult, Paus. 6. 11. 8, Launey, , Études thasiennes, i. 133Google Scholar ff.

page 106 note 4 Plutarch assigns to Theogenes 1,200 victories (Praec. reip. ger. 15. 7), Pausanias 1,400 (6.11. 5), while a Delphic oracle quoted by Dio Chrysostom calls him πρν μυριεθλος νρ (31. 377 Dindorf).

page 107 note 1 Iv ol 160, Anth. Pal. xiii. 16, von Gaertringen, F. Hiller, Hist. gr. Epigr. 63Google Scholar. Cf. Xen. Ages. 9. 6, Plut. Ages. 20.I.

page 107 note 2 Paus. 10. 9. 2 αὐλητσ μν οὖν κα σοι γωνισταὖ μουσικς τν νθρώπων τοῖς πλείοσιν γνοντο μετ οὐδενòς λογισμο, οὐ πνυ τι γομαι σπουδς ξίους· θλητς δ πóσοι τι κα ὑπελίποντο ς δóξαο, ν λóγῳ σφς δλωσα τῷ ς Ἠλείους.

page 107 note 3 The MS. reading πρτος is preferable to the emendation πρτον accepted by some scholars. Menander, it seems, was the first dramatist admitted to compete in his own name while still an ἔφηβος. The fact may well have been noted in the dramatic Didascaliae (IG ii2.2319–23a), where to the name of the comedian Aminias, placed third at the Dionysia of 3II, is appended the note [οὗτος ἔ]φηβος ὢν νεμθη (2323a. 47). In the Dionysiac Fasti innovations are occasionally registered (2318. 202 f., 317 f.).

page 108 note 1 Fouilles, iii(3). 128 (= SIG 648 B). 2 f.

page 108 note 2 Bergk, , Poet. Lyr. Graeci, ii, p. 266Google Scholar, κλλιστον (δ') μηδες ἄλλος Ἑλλνων (ἔλαχες), | ἄρματι πρτα δραμεῖν κα δετερα κα τρίτατα. I need not here discuss the question whether Alcibiades’ success was gained by fair means or foul ([Andoc] 4.25 f., Diod. 13. 74, Plut. Alc. 12).

page 108 note 3 Mr. G. T. Griffith has called my attention to a modern sporting record which provides a remarkable parallel to Alcibiades' Olympic triumph. In the St. Leger of 1932 H.H. the Aga Khan ran four horses and won the first, second, and fourth places with Firdaussi, Dastur, and Udaipur respectively.

page 108 note 4 Friedländer, L., Roman Life and Manners, i. 268Google Scholar, says ‘Travelling throughout most of the Roman Empire was easy, swift and secure to a degree unknown until the beginning of the nineteenth century’.

page 108 note 5 Greek Athletic Sports and Festivals, 167; cf. Athletics of the Ancient World, 106.

page 109 note 1 Op. cit. 178,181; for honours etc., cf. Vitr. 9, praef. I.

page 109 note 2 The lists of inscriptions given in the following notes are illustrative and incomplete.

page 109 note 3 IG Rom iii. 370. s i., CIG 2682.5 ff., Bull. Soc. arch. Bulg. iii. 191 ( = Θρᾳκικ, 8. 82). In the first of these Cagnat takes over from the first edition (Sterrett, J. R. S., Wolfe Expedition, 413)Google Scholar the word δολιχ[ο]δρομα, which does not occur elsewhere: in Sterrett's copy Χ is followed by Λ and Μ by a dotted, and so doubtful, ε (though everywhere else in this inscription ε has the rectilinear form ɛ), and there is no further letter; I think we should read δολιχᾳδρóμο[ν]. Some interesting records of long-distance runs are preserved inPliny, , Nat. Hist. 7. 84Google Scholar. SIG 802 Α 8 apparently celebrates the first victory won by a woman in the στδιον at the Pythian games, a feat achieved in A.D. 39 (West, A. B., Cl. Phil. xxiii. 258 ff.)Google Scholar. Specially noteworthy is the inscription of a runner, Milesian, Milet, i(9). 369Google Scholar, the restoration of which Robert, L. emends in Rev. ÉL Anc. xxxi. 14Google Scholar f., 19 f. The athlete in question, whose name has perished, won the men's δίαυλος and πλίτης at Olympia in 20 B.C. He set up. absolute records in winning the men's [στ]διον, δίαυλον, πλίτην κατ τò ξς ν τι αὐτι ¶ νιαυττι at the Nemea (a 4 f.), and in winning the same three contests ν τι [αὐ]τι μραι at the Ἄκτια τ μεγλα ¶ [και]σρηα (a 9 ff.), while in other distinctions he was first τν πò τς Ἀσίας (a 9) of τν Ἰώνων (a 13, 15) or Μιλησίων (a 14). A pancratiast claims as a unique feat that he contested, presumably with success, τριετίᾳ τς τρεῖς κρίσ[εις, παῖδα], | γενειον, ἄνδρα (CIG 2810 b 9 f.), while a Delphian inscription (Fouilles, iii(6). 143. 6 f.) describes a flute-player as μóνον κα πρτον τν π' αἰνος νθρώπων κκαίδεκα τν ρξμενον τοὺς ἄνδρας γωνίζεσθαι, if L. Robert's restoration of a corrupt text is right (Rev. Phil, iv (1930), 55 f.)Google Scholar; Robert also restores BMI 613 (Hellenica, vii. no f.).

page 109 note 4 IG xiv. 746. II, 747, Iv ol 54. 37 f. ( = SIG 1073.48 f.), 234, Iv Magn 180.3 f., CIG 2810 b 7 ff., 22 ff. (cf. Rev. Phil. iv. 27 f.), IG Rom iv. 1344.4 f. In this last inscription I fail to understand Lafaye's note on τι σκθ Ὀλυ[μ]π[ι]δι, ‘De Olympiis Magnetum cf. titulum Trallensem, C.I.Gr., 2933, etKrause, , Olympia, p. 218Google Scholar. Olympiades vero quando inceperint, non liquet’, for the phrase νικσαντα Ὀλμπια τ μεγλα ν Πείσηι. proves. (cf. Robert, L., Rev. Phil. iv. 43)Google Scholar that the Olym piad in question is that of the Elean Olympia and corresponds to A.D. 137. IG Rom iv. 1064 (= SIG 1065) commemorates an athlete who repeatedly won the πνταθλον, once the στδιον and πνταθλον on the same day, once the στδιον alone and once the παγκρτιον.

page 109 note 5 IG ii2 3163. 3 ff., IG Rom iii. 1012. 3 ff., iv. 1519 b I f.

page 109 note 6 IG xiv. 737. 5, CIG 1720. 6 f.(cf. Robert, L., Rev. Phil. iv. 55 f.)Google Scholar, 2810. 3 ff., IG Rom iv. 1432. 3f., Fouilles, iii(l). 547. 12 f., iii(3). 128, Robert, L., Rev. Phil. iv. 56Google Scholar f.

page 109 note 7 IG ii2 3169. 35 f., Iu ol 237. 5 f.

page 110 note 1 Fouittes, iii(i). 89. 2 f. (cf. Rev. Phil. iv. 54).

page 110 note 2 Fouilles, iii(i). 551. 3f. (cf. Robert, L., Hermes, lxv. 106 ff.)Google Scholar, Ephesos, ii. 71. 8 ff. (cf. Hermes, lxv. 113 f.), Wien. Anz. 1945, 10 ff. The first two of these relate to pantomimes (τραγικς νρθμου κινσεως ὑποκριτς), the third to a βιολóγος.

page 110 note 3 For Ἑλλνων seeRobert, L., Rev. Ét. Anc. xxxi. 13Google Scholar ff. An impressive title is borne by a trumpeter, καπιτω[ι]ονείκης π Ῥώμης, Τρισ7pi;υθιονείκης, δεκαολυμπιονεíκης, δωδεκαακτιονεíκης, Ῥρισ7kappa;αιδεκαασκληπιονείκης, Νεμιονείκης (BGU 1074, re-edited by Viereck, P., Klio, viii. 417)Google Scholar.

page 110 note 4 IG ii2. 3538 (= SIG 790). 6 f., IG Rom i. 1096. 4 f., 10 ff., BCH li. 83.

page 110 note 5 IG v(i). 467.10 ff., JRS xxxiii. 39. Cf. Hdt. 8. 124. 3 μονον δ τοτον πντων νθρώπων τν μεῖς ἴδμεν σπαρτιται προπεμϕαν, 9. 35. I μονοι δ δ πντων νθ7rho;ώπων γνοτο οὗτοι σπαρτιτησι πολιται.

page 110 note 6 IG v(i). 541. 14 ff., 542. 9 ff.

page 110 note 7 Iu Priene, 114. 24 f.

page 110 note 8 SIG 802 A 16 f.

page 110 note 9 IG vii. 2712. 24 f. (cf. BCH lix. 446), ix(i). 90.3 f.

page 110 note 10 IG vii. 2712. 36, 53 f., 73, CIG 3617. 7 ff., SEG iii. 422. 4 f., BCH li. 92, 95, IG Rom iii. 69. 14.

page 110 note 11 Cf. IG vii. 2712. 53 f. ὑπερ[εβλλετο] δ τ μεγαλοϕυχίᾳ κα ρετῖ πντας τοὺς | [προτρους],. Robert, L., Ét. épigr. et philol. 46Google Scholar.

page 111 note 1 For a careful analysis of the meaning of αἰών and αἰώνιος see Brabant, F. H., Time and Eternity in Christian Thought, 240Google Scholar ff. Αἰών as one looks back normally denotes the whole of past time, as one looks forward the whole future, all time to come. It occurs very often in the ‘record-inscriptions’, nearly always preceded by ano, in such phrases as π' αἰνος, πò το (παντòς) αἰνος, πò παντòς το αἰνος, π' αἰνος κα μχρι νν. For εἰν (τòν) αἰνα see Robert, L., Ét. épigr. et philol. 108Google Scholar ff.; for other prepositional phrases, Liddell and Scott, s.v. αἰών Cf. the epigram in honour of the Athenian historian Dexippus (IG ii2. 3669. 10 f.):

ς ἱστορίην σαθρσας

αἰνος δολιχν τρεκως ἔφρασεν.

page 111 note 2 Pap. Oxy. i, p. 68.; cf.Welles, C. B., Trans. Am. Phil. Ass. Ixvii. 17Google Scholar, Preisigke, F., Wörterbuch, i. 39Google Scholar. The papyrus is republished in Wilcken, , Chrestomathie, 20Google Scholar.

page 111 note 3 IG v(i). 467. 10; cf. 213. 36, 258. 9 f., IG ii2 3687. 4, 3270, JHS xlii. 168.

page 111 note 4 Τν π' αἰνος IG Rom i. 1096. 4, IG ii2. 3538 (= SIG 790). 6 f.—νθρώπων IG xiv. 746.11, 747 (eight times), CIG 2682. 7—πντων Milet, *(9). 369a (twice)—πρώτη π' αἰνος SIG 802 A 16 f.

page 111 note 5 Ἰασων CIG 2682. 5 f., κώιων SIG 1065. 4, Ἀφροδεισιων CIG 2810 b 22 f. (cf. Rev. Phil. iv. 27 f.), τν π' αἰνος γυμ[νασιαρχησντ]ων, ξηγητευσντων IG Rom i. 1096. 10 ff., πρώτη παρθνων SIG 802 A 8. For other examples see p. 109, n. 3.

page 111 note 6 Cf. Hdt. I. 25 μονος δ πντων νθρώπων,, Lys. xxiv. 9 μóνος νθρώπων, IG vii. 2712. 73 μηδες ἄλλος τν προτρων ποίησεν, SEG vi. 61.