Olympic Victors - Historum

Pythagoras · June 10th, 2012, 01:31 PM

I would like to share with you a very interesting site that contains all the recorded names of the ancient Olympic victors from the first Olympiad in 776 BC to the last one that we have recorded names in 277 AD.

We know for example that in the year 480 BC, coinciding with the death of Leonidas in Thermopylae, Astylos of Croton (though he was bribed by the Syracusans to compete under their city state) won the Stadion (the most famous of all athletic events). In 400 BC, one year before Socrates died, Minos of Athens won the Stadion. Four centuries later, in 1 AD and while young Jesus was doing his first steps, Demaratos of Ephesos won the Stadion.

Here is the link:

OLYMPIC GAMES

You can choose either by era, date, or sport.

**okamido** · June 10th, 2012, 02:15 PM

You can use that site to pinpoint the subjugation of Messenia by Sparta.

Pythagoras · June 10th, 2012, 02:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by okamido

You can use that site to pinpoint the subjugation of Messenia by Sparta.

I am also trying to find the first Roman victor!

Pythagoras · June 10th, 2012, 02:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pythagoras

I am also trying to find the first Roman victor!

I think I found him!

It was Gaius of Rome in the year 72 BC that won in the Dolichos Running Race. It's a little bit awkward that there are actually two(!!!) victors of Dolichos in the year 72 BC, Gaius of Rome and Hypsikles of Sikyon - apparently, a Greek!

I wonder what happened....

**okamido** · June 10th, 2012, 02:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pythagoras

I think I found him!

It was Gaius of Rome in the year 72 BC that won in the Dolichos Running Race. It's a little bit awkward that there are actually two(!!!) victors of Dolichos in the year 72 BC, Gaius of Rome and Hypsikles of Sikyon - apparently, a Greek!

I wonder what happened....

Something may be going on there because checking on that, I found it listed as Gaius of Rome and/ or Hypsikles of Sikyon.

I hate these little mysteries because I am going to be digging this all night. DAMN OCD!!!

**edit**
Here is something else I found:

Phlegon, author of a Greek Olympic Register
in the second century B. C. enumerating the
crowned Olympians in 72. B. C. named
two distancers: Hypsikles of Sikyon and a
Roman one, Gaios as winners. As far as we
are informed, this was the only event when
two runners reached the goal at the same
time i. e. the heat was qualified asdead. Some
scholars — as Corsini, Rutgers, Scheibel —
were of the beliefe that such a result could
not have occured. We can easily imagine it
though it should be remarked that the place
quoted by the patriarch Photios Bibl. cod.

XCVI. 83. b. is somewhat mutilated.

http://www.la84foundation.org/Olympi...20/BDCE20m.pdf

Pythagoras · June 10th, 2012, 02:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by okamido

Something may be going on there because checking on that, I found it listed as Gaius of Rome and/ or Hypsikles of Sikyon.

I hate these little mysteries because I am going to be digging this all night. DAMN OCD!!!

**edit**
Here is something else I found:

Phlegon, author of a Greek Olympic Register
in the second century B. C. enumerating the
crowned Olympians in 72. B. C. named
two distancers: Hypsikles of Sikyon and a
Roman one, Gaios as winners. As far as we
are informed, this was the only event when
two runners reached the goal at the same
time i. e. the heat was qualified asdead. Some
scholars — as Corsini, Rutgers, Scheibel —
were of the beliefe that such a result could
not have occured. We can easily imagine it
though it should be remarked that the place
quoted by the patriarch Photios Bibl. cod.

XCVI. 83. b. is somewhat mutilated.

http://www.la84foundation.org/Olympi...20/BDCE20m.pdf

Haha, I was just going to quote this!

It seems that 2084 years later, one Greek member of the Historum and one American moderator, also had the same "accident" of simultaneity.

Pythagoras · June 10th, 2012, 02:53 PM

....Or maybe they did a favor to the Roman, by allowing him to share the first place, even though he was milliseconds behind the Greek!

Damn, now I know where and when I am going to travel back in time, if a time machine is ever invented.

Edit: Interestingly enough, 72 BC was the date when the Battle of Cabira took place.

**okamido** · June 10th, 2012, 03:08 PM

[QUOTE=Pythagoras;1076737
Edit: Interestingly enough, 72 BC was the date when the Battle of Cabira took place.[/QUOTE]
Politics as always.

**Ancientgeezer** · June 10th, 2012, 03:37 PM

Thanks for this. Very interesting that in 4BC the Tethrippon ( 4 horse chariot event) was won by one Tiberius Claudius Nero of Rome. A fix?

(No it couldn't be any of the Emperors, but it must have been a member of the Imperial family.

Pythagoras · June 10th, 2012, 03:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ancientgeezer

Thanks for this. Very interesting that in 4BC the Tethrippon ( 4 horse chariot event) was won by one Tiberius Claudius Nero of Rome. A fix?

(No it couldn't be any of the Emperors, but it must have been a member of the Imperial family.

I also found it peculiar. Of course, it is not referred to the father of Tiberius since he died many years prior to the event. Maybe a synonymy?

*edit

I found this while searching online from another forum:

Quote:

the only ancient source I’ve ever heard of for Tiberius’ Olympic victory is the inscription on a statue of Olympian Zeus in honour of the event. I haven’t read the inscription, but it is apparently to be found in V. Ehrenberg & A.H.M. Jones, Documents Illustrating the Reigns of Augustus and Tiberius, Oxford, 1955, no. 78. The year was 1 A.D., it was during Tiberius’ voluntary exile on Rhodes. As you know, in ancient times the winner of the quadriga race wasn’t the person who actually raced the thing, but the owner of the team. Tiberius was tough, but no Commodius, so it is very likely he didn’t drive the quadriga himself.
The 2 sources for it that I have are: chp. II of the biography of Tiberius by Ernst Kornemann (Tiberius, W. Kohlhammer Verlag, Stuttgart, 1960) and an article by Jean-Paul Thuillier, “Tibère et Néron, champions olympiques” in Les Collections de l'Histoire magazine, July/September 2008 issue.

Tiberius' Olympic Victory

So, maybe he was not Tiberius himself, but someone who won on behalf of him, as it was usual in the Tethrippon race?

Apparently, we have another mystery!