The Tense Olympics of 420 BCE And A Boycotted Athlete From Sparta Who Sneaked Into The Games

Around 422, after nine years of war, a truce was reached in the Peloponnesian War between the rival Greek coalitions of Athens and Sparta. Although the peace between them would last seven years, war was still prevalent by way of regional disputes. In 421 BCE, one such conflict was caused in the Peloponnesus when the city of Argos announced the creation of its own league and began recruiting into its ranks some disillusioned allies of Sparta. Mantinea, Elis, Chalcidice and, less enthusiastically, Corinth and the Boeotian cities all aligned their regions with Argos. Boeotia and Corinth, however, had a change of heart and separated from Argos—Boeotia renewed its alliance with Sparta and Corinth decided to stay neutral, but was more favorable to Sparta than Argos. When the Boeotians and Corinthians abandoned the Argive alliance and Sparta began launching attacks against Mantinea, Argos decided to align itself and its allies with Athens. This was the atmosphere of Greece in 420 BCE, when the Olympic Games were held within the territory of the Argive alliance.

Argos and its remaining allies were still bitter with Sparta when it came time to host the Olympic Games. Although members of both the Athenian Delian League and the Spartan-led Peloponnesian League were welcome at the Olympics, Sparta, itself, was banned from participating. Just in case the Spartans should decide to show up and compete in a contest of battle, the Argive alliance and Athens sent troops to defend the Olympic Games—Thucydides estimated around 1,000 warriors from Argos, 1,000 more from Mantinea and an uncounted contingent of cavalry from Athens was present at the games specifically to guard against a Spartan attack.

The Athenian general and historian, Thucydides (c. 460-400 BCE), recalled two or three events that stood out in the 420 BCE Olympic Games. An Arcadian athlete named Androsthenes proved his prowess that year, winning both the wrestling and the boxing events. Additionally, the horses and charioteer bankrolled by Lichas, son of Arcesilaus, won a chariot event during the games. Lichas’ success, however, caused no small amount of controversy—he was, after all, a Spartan. Lichas had stealthily sneaked his chariot team into the Olympic Games and they won the event without anyone being the wiser. When Lichas proudly raced down to course to congratulate his team and crown the charioteer, the spectators and umpires of the games quickly discovered that he was Spartan. In a rage, officials stripped the Spartan team of their victory, instead granting the win to a Boeotian charioteer who had finished in second place. As for Lichas, he was allegedly given an embarrassing punitive beating by the umpires of the chariot race.

After the scandalous Lichas incident, the 420 BCE Olympic Games became even more tense. According to Thucydides, the participants and spectators of the games were now more sure than ever that the Spartans would rally their forces to avenge Lichas. The Spartans, however, stayed home and no further incidents were reported to have occurred during the games.

Written by C. Keith Hansley.

Picture Attribution: (Ancient image of a chariot from the Tomb of the Driver, now housed in a museum in Paestum, Italy. [Public Domain] via Creative Commons).

Sources:

• History of the Peloponnesian War (Book V) by Thucydides, translated by Rex Warner and introduced by M. I. Finley. New York: Penguin Classics, 1972.

Augustus’ Favorite Spectator Sport And Tabletop Game

If anyone is looking for some odd information about Augustus, or other early Roman emperors, look no further than The Twelve Caesars by Suetonius (c. 70-130+). That quirky book has long been a paradoxical blessing and annoyance to historians. On the negative side, Suetonius did not follow chronology, and often only briefly summarized military campaigns, or even ignored such matters altogether. On the other hand, he frequently documented his sources, sometimes quoting almost word-for-word from wills, letters and songs, lampoons and other texts. Just as important, Suetonius viewed the past from a different angle than other scholars. He let other historians focus on military campaigns and politics, and instead wrote details about society and the personalities that lived there. As such, Suetonius may not be the best source for somebody wanting a narrated timeline of Augustus’ reign (Cassius Dio would be a much better option in that regard), but his work is definitely an invaluable source of complimentary information, such as public opinion in Rome, physical descriptions of important figures, and social events funded by the emperors.

With such an approach, Suetonius was one of the few ancient commentators to write not only about what Augustus did, but also what Augustus personally liked. When it came to entertainment, Suetonius portrayed Augustus as being in a healthy middle ground. He was more visibly interested in enjoying sports and games than Julius Caesar, but he was also much better behaved at public functions than some of his wilder successors, such as Caligula and Nero.

When it came to public sports, Augustus apparently loved watching boxing. He liked all kinds of fist fights, from pro matches between trained fighters from Greek and Italian boxing schools, to less-organized brawls in the streets of Rome. Augustus was not alone in his love for boxing—it was one of humanity’s earliest sports. The brutality of the fights could vary, with the boxers (or patrons) apparently able to pick from a variety of boxing gloves. Archaeologists remarkably found two intact boxing hand straps, from about 120 CE, located underneath the fort of Vindolanda, near Hadrian’s Wall. While these straps look more like knuckle pads, there were reportedly other types of gloves that were much more devastating, such as the caestus, which was outfitted with metal studs.

If, however, Augustus was in a more laidback mood, his favorite game was supposedly dice. Suetonius recorded several letters between Augustus and his heir, Tiberius, where the emperor wrote about his enjoyment and love for playing dice. If the letters that Suetonius read were authentic, then Augustus would sometimes gamble all day long, even playing dice with guests while meals were being served. For the people who were hesitant to gamble at dice with Augustus, the emperor had an interesting solution. Suetonius wrote that Augustus would include money in his guest invitations, so that they could use his own coin during the dice games.

Written by C. Keith Hansley.

Picture Attribution: (Image of boxers from page 224 of "Outlines of ancient and modern history, on a new plan" (1839), [Public Domain] via Flickr and Creative Commons).

Sources:

• The Twelve Caesars by Suetonius, translated by Robert Graves and edited by James B. Rives. New York: Penguin Classics, 2007.
• http://www.historyoffighting.com/boxing-in-the-ancient-world.php 
• https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/feb/19/rare-roman-boxing-gloves-found-hadrians-wall  

Horse Fights In Medieval Iceland

At a time when most medieval Europeans were content with entertaining themselves by watching roosters battle it out (unfortunately named cockfighting), the Icelanders and their Norwegian relatives chose to watch battles between larger animals—horses. Interestingly, horse fighting, known as hestavíg, found a great following in medieval Icelandic society. Numerous Icelandic sagas mentioned horse fighting, including Grettir’s Saga, Viga-Glum’s Saga, Eyrbyggja Saga, Kormac’s Saga, and Reykdæla Saga.

Horse fighting had become common in Norway and Iceland by no later than the 10th century, when laws were being written about the practice. Not much is known about the rules of Icelandic horse fighting, but a vague picture can be drawn from the scenes contained in the sagas. It seems that the horse fights were held in the warmer months, and the events were large regional social gatherings, where multiple communities participated in the festivities. Horse owners employed handlers called seconds, usually family members or friends, who were responsible for enticing the specially-trained stallions to fight, and also to keep the violent horses safely away from the crowd of onlookers once the battle began. These seconds were apparently armed with sticks, which they used to prod the horses and it was apparently not unheard of for the opposing handlers to sometimes fight amongst themselves. Even if the seconds kept the peace, the owners and clans were also known to sometimes erupt into feuds over the results of horse fights.

Even though the practice of horse fighting in Iceland began to peter out as time progressed and ethics began to change, the grisly sport managed to persist for many centuries. Icelandic horse fighting was still supposedly in practice as late as the 19th century.

Written by C. Keith Hansley.

Picture Attribution: (Fighting Stallions painted by George Stubbs  (1724–1806), [Public Domain] via creative commons).

Sources:

• Grettir's Saga (anonymous Icelandic saga, c. 14th century) translated by Jesse Byock. New York: Oxford World's Classics, 2009.
• https://www.academia.edu/1489956/Gogosz_R._Horse-fights_the_Brutal_Entertainemnt_of_the_Icelanders_in_the_Middle_Ages._In_%C5%9Aredniowiecze_Polski_i_Powszechne_5_9_Katowice_2014_pp._17-32