318 HISTORICAL TALES.

year, this four year period being called an “ Olym-
piad,” and used as the basis of the chronology of
Greece, the first Olympiad dating from the revival
of the games in 884 Bo.

These games at first lasted but a single day, but
were extended until they occupied five days. Of
these the first day was devoted to sacrifices, the
three following days to the contests, and the last day
to sacrifices, processions, and banquets. For a long
period single foot-races satisfied the desires of the
Eleans and their visitors. Then the double foot-race
was added. Wrestling and other athletic exercises
were introduced in the eighth century before Christ.
Then followed boxing. This was a brutal and dan-
gerous exercise, the combatants’ hands being bound
with heavy leather thongs which were made more
rigid by pieces of metal. The four-horse chariot-
race came later; afterwards the pancratium (wrest-
ling and boxing, without the leaded thongs); boys’
races and wrestling and boxing matches; foot-races
in a full suit of armor; and in the fifth century, two-
horse chariot-races. Nero, in the year 68 a.D., in-
troduced musical contests, and the games were finally
abolished by Theodosius, the Christian emperor, in
the year 394 a.p.

Olympia was not a city or town. It was simply
a plain in the district of Pisatis. But it was so
surrounded with magnificent temples and other
structures, so adorned with statues, and so abun-
dantly provided with the edifices necessary to the
games, that it in time grew into a locality of remark-
able architectural beauty and grandeur. Here was