Greek Texts & Translations

Very good.

The next step, then, is to remind ourselves, 832ewith regard to all gymnastic contests, that all such as afford training for war should be instituted, and should have prizes assigned to them, but all that do not do so must be set aside. What these contests consist in, it will be well to have described and ordained at the beginning. First, then, should we not ordain contests in running and speed in general?

We should.

Most important of all things for war is, no doubt, general activity of the body, of hands as well as feet—activity of foot for flight and pursuit, 833aand of hand for the stand-up fighting at close quarters which calls for sturdiness and strength.

No doubt.

Yet, surely, neither of these is of the greatest service when it lacks weapons.

Certainly not.

So at our contests the herald (as is now the practice) shall summon first the short-distance runner: he shall enter fully armed; and for an unarmed competitor we shall offer no prize. First, then, there shall enter the man who, with his arms, is to run the furlong,—second, the runner of the quarter-mile,— 833bthird, the half-miler,—fourth, the runner of the three-quarters,—and fifth, that runner whom we shall despatch first, fully armed, to run a distance of four miles to a temple of Ares and back; he shall be in heavier armor, and be called a hoplite, and he shall run over a smooth course, while his antagonist ^note shall be dressed in the full equipment of an archer, and shall run a course of twelve miles over hills and varied country to a temple of Apollo and Artemis. And having thus set up the contests, 833cwe shall await the return of these runners, and to the winner of each race we shall award the prize.

Very right.

Let us plan these contests in three divisions—one for children, one for youths, and one for men. We shall ordain that the course for the youths' races shall be two-thirds of the full course, and that for children one-half, when they compete either as archers or as hoplites. In the case of females, we shall ordain races of a furlong, a quarter-mile, a half-mile, and a three-quarters 833dfor girls under the age of puberty, who shall be stripped, and shall race on the course itself; and girls over thirteen shall continue to take part until married, ^note up to the age of twenty at most, or at least eighteen; but these, when they come forward and compete in these races, must be clad in decent apparel. Let such, then, be the rules concerning races for men and women. As to trials of strength, instead of wrestling and the other “strong-man” events now in vogue, we shall ordain fencing in armor, 833eboth in solo-contests and in team-competitions of anything from two to ten a side. As regards the hits which a winner is to make or avoid, and how many points he must score,—just as now in the case of wrestling, those who deal with this art have fixed by law the points of good wrestling and bad, so likewise we must summon the experts in fencing under arms, and bid them help us to draw up laws by which to decide the proper winner in such fights, 834awhat he must do and what he must avoid,—and similarly the rules for determining the loser. For females also, up to the age of marriage, the same laws shall be laid down. And in the place of the pancratium we must establish a general tourney for peltasts, who shall compete with bows, targes, javelins, and stones flung either by hand or by sling; and for these, too, we shall prescribe laws for assigning the rewards and prizes to the man who best conforms to the rules governing such contests. After these, the next thing to ordain 834bwill be horse-racing. Here, in a country like Crete, there is not much need of horses—not in great numbers,—so that inevitably less attention is paid either to the rearing or the racing of horses. As to chariots, we have no one who keeps them, nor is anyone here likely to cherish any great ambition respecting them, so that to establish contests for them would run counter to native custom, and would not only seem, but be, a foolish act. If, however, we establish prizes for races of riding-horses— 834cboth for young colts, and for three-year-olds, and for those of full age—we shall be adapting the sport of horse-racing to the character of the country. Of these horsemen there shall be established by law a competitive contest, and the phylarchs and hipparchs shall act as public judges both of all the races and of the armed competitors. For unarmed competitors we should be wrong in establishing prizes, either here or in the gymnastic sports.