download - IOA

The citizen-priest Theodoros wrote about Milo in the "Regarding
Athletic Games" that he ate twenty mnas of meat, an equal quantity
of bread and drank three hoas. It may be noted taht one mna represents
about l/3rd of a kilo, or just under one 1b, while a hoa was the equivalent
of 12 kotylae, and a kotyla was a drinking cup which contained 7 %
ounces, or about 1/6 of a kilo. Work it out for yourselves. Athenaeus
writes about the heavy eating of athletes (i, 4-6): "And it is not at all
strange that these men should become heavy eaters, since all athletes
together with the many training exercises also learn to eat heavily"
I have omitted therefore the exaggerations regarding Milo. Here is
another example.
Ladas of Sparta was a famous endurance runner and sprint victor.
An epigramme regarding him has been preserved (Anthol. Planoudis
D, 55).
"Ladas crossed the stadium length either by jumping it or on
wings; his speed was demoniac, nor could it possibly be described".
This epigramme is a testification of speed. It is not a legend. It
is a question of an actuality. Yet how can we today calculate the speed
of Ladas who traversed the stadium length as if flying in front of the
spectators?
For this reason, without attempting to make comparisons with
contemporary athletes, I will proceed to the subject and refer to some
of the more characteristic achievements of ancient athletes. The reason
for including a race of endurance in the ancient Games was the following:
(Philostr. Gymn. 4, K. 263). Heralds, that is to say men who had the
profession of carrying messages, mostly of Arcadia, were utilised throughout
Greece, to carry war news, proposals of alliance, of truce, peace etc.
Such men were forbidden to use horses. They had to cover the whole
distance on foot. These herald runners were also called bematists, or
pacers, for they measured the route with their paces. For this reason
"pace-measured roads" are referred to. Lexicographer Hesychios writes
that the herald runner was a man who was sent with urgence, the hemerodromos,
or day-runner. Arpocration also utilises this word, and
so does Aeschines. The Cretans, as well as the Arcadians, were most
able herald-runners.
A statue pedestal has been preserved with the following inscription.
"Philonides of Zoitos, King Alexander's day-runner bematistes
of Asia, a Cretan, dedicated to Olympic Zeus."
155