kwards and forwards, turning twelve
times round the goal.

There were some runners in ancient times, as well among the Greeks as
Romans, who have been much celebrated for their swiftness. Pliny tells
us,(135) that it was thought prodigious in Phidippides to run eleven
hundred and forty Stadia(136) between Athens and Lacedaemon in the space of
two days, till Anystis of the latter place, and Philonides, the runner of
Alexander the Great, went twelve hundred Stadia(137) in one day, from
Sicyon to Elis. These runners were denominated {~GREEK SMALL LETTER ETA WITH DASIA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER MU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER RHO~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER DELTA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER RHO~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON WITH OXIA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER MU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER UPSILON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER FINAL SIGMA~} as we find in
that passage of Herodotus, which mentions Phidippides.(138) In the
consulate of Fonteius and Vipsanus, in the reign of Nero, a boy of nine
years old ran seventy-five thousand paces(139) between noon and night.
Pliny adds, that in his time there were runners, who ran one hundred and
sixty thousand paces(140) in the circus. Our wonder at such a prodigious
speed will increase, (continues he,)(141) if we reflect, that when
Tiberius went to Germany to his brother Drusius, then at the point of
death, he could not arrive there in less than four-and-twenty hours,
though the distance was but two hundred thousand paces,(142) and he
changed his carriage three times,(143) and went with the utmost diligence.

2. Of the Horse-races.

The race of a single horse with a rider was less celebrated among the
ancients, yet it had its favourers amongst the most considerable persons,
and even kings themselves, and was attended with uncommon glory to the
victor. Pindar, in his first ode, celebrates a victory of this kind,
obtained by Hiero, king of Syracuse, to whom he gives the title of {~GREEK CAPITAL LETTER KAPPA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON WITH OXIA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER LAMDA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ETA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER FINAL SIGMA~},
that is, "Victor in the horse-race;" which name was given to the horses
carrying only a single rider, {~GREEK CAPITAL LETTER KAPPA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON WITH OXIA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER LAMDA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ETA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER TAU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER FINAL SIGMA