Alexander Stuart Murray

“ On the other hand, the term was restricted so as to exclude those who, for mere exercise, without the incentive of a prize, prac tised in the daily gymnastic competitions. For such the name was dyuviorat, and this distinction was the more necessary in the later period of Greek history, when trained athletes became a professional class (400-300 B.C.) Yet it was not the value of the prizes themselves which led men to devote their lives to athletic exercises. ”

“ Against specially trained athletes the better class of citizens refused to compete, and the lists of the public games being thus left practically open only to professionals, training became more a matter of system and study, particularly in regard to diet, which was rigorously prescribed for the athletes by a public functionary, styled the Aleiptes, who also had to salve their bodies when practising. ”

“ These vases, found in the tombs, probably, of the winners, are made of clay, and painted on one side with a repre sentation of the contest in which they were won, and on the other side with a figure of Pallas Athena, with an inscription telling where they were gained, and in some cases adding the name of the eponymous magistrate of Athens, from which the exact year can be determined. ”