Chapter 11

His breeds of horses were famous the world over, and so was the number of his racing-chariots. No one else ever entered seven of these at the Olympic games—neither commoner nor king—but he alone. And his coming off first, second, and fourth victor (as Thucydides says; third, according to Euripides), transcends in the splendor of its renown all that ambition can aspire to in this field.

The ode of Euripides to which I refer runs thus:— Thee will I sing, O child of Cleinias; A fair thing is victory, but fairest is what no other Hellene has achieved, To run first, and second, and third in the contest of racing-chariots, And to come off unwearied, and, wreathed with the olive of Zeus, To furnish theme for herald’s proclamation.