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646

ISTHMIA.

to Theseus himself, who, according to some legends, was a son of Poseidon, and who, in the institution of the new Isthmian solemnities, is said to have imitated Heracles, the founder of the Olympian games. The celebration of the Isthmia was hence­forth conducted by the Corinthians, but Theseus had reserved for his Athenians some honourable distinctions; those Athenians who attended the Jsthmia sailed across the Saronic gulf in a sacred vessel (3-ewpi’s), and an honorary place (-zrpoeSpta), as large as the sail of their vessel, was assigned to them during the celebration of the games. (Pint. /. c.) In times of war between the two states a sacred truce was concluded, and the Athenians were invited to attend at the solemnities. (Thucyd. viii. 10.) The Eleans did not take part in the games, and various stories were related to account for this singular circumstance. (Paus. v. 2. § 2.) It is a very probable conjecture of Wachsmuth (Hellen. Alter tli. vol. i. p. 155), that the Isthmia, after the changes ascribad to Theseus, were merely a panegyris of the lonians of Peloponnesus and those of Attica ; for it should be observed, that Poseidon was an Ionian deity, whose worship appears originally to have been unknown to the Dorians. During the reign of the Cypselids at Corinth, the celebration of the Isthmian games was suspended for seventy years. (Solin. c. 12.) But after that time they gradually rose to the rank of a national festival of all the Greeks. In Olymp. 49 they became periodical, and were henceforth cele­brated regularly every third year, twice in every Olympiad, that is, in the first and third year of every Olympiad. The Isthmia held in the .first year of an Olympiad fell in the Corinthian month Pan emus (the Attic Hecatombaeon) ; and those which were held in the third year of an Olympiad, fell either in the month of Munychion or Tharge-lion. (Corsini, Dissert. Agon. 4 ; compare Goeller ad Thucyd. viii. 9.) Pliny (H. N. iv. 5) and So-linus (c. 9) erroneously state that the Isthmia were celebrated every fifth year. With this regularity the solemnities continued to be held by the Greeks down to a very late period. In 228 b. c. the Romans were allowed the privilege of taking part in the Isthmia (Polyb. ii. 13) ; and it was at this solemnity that, in B. c. 19G Flamininus proclaimed before an innumerable assembly the independence of Greece (Polyb. xvii. 29). After the fall of Corinth, in b. c. 146, the Sicyonians were honoured with the privilege of conducting the Isthmian games ; but when the town of Corinth was rebuilt by Julius Caesar (Pans. ii. 1. §24 ii. 2. § 2), the right of conducting the solemnities was’restored to the Corinthians, and it seems that they henceforth continued to be celebrated till Christianity became the state-religion of the Roman empire. (Sueton. Nero, 24 ; Julian Imperat. Epist. 35.)

The season of the Isthmian solemnities was, like that of all the great national festivals, distinguished by general rejoicings and feasting. The contests and games of the Isthmia were the same as those at Olympia, and embraced all the varieties of athletic performances, sueh as wrestling, the pan–cratium, together with horse and chariot racing. (Paus. v. 2. § 4 ; Polyb. I. c.} Musical and poeti­cal contests were likewise carried on, and in the latter women also were allowed to take part, as we must infer from Plutarch (Sympos. v. 2), who, on the authority of Polemo, states that in the trca-gury at Sicyon there was a golden book which had

JUDEX, JUDICIUM.

been presented to it by Aristomache, the poetess,’ after she had gained the victory at the Isthmia. At a late period of the Roman empire the charac­ter of the games at the Isthmia appears greatly altered ; for in the letter of the emperor Julian, above referred to, it is stated that the Corinthians purchased bears and panthers for the purpose of exhibiting their fights at the Isthmia, and it is not improbable that the custom of introducing fights of animals on this occasion commenced soon after the time of Caesar.

The prize of a victor in the Isthmian games con­sisted at first of a garland of pine-leaves, and after­wards of a wreath of ivy ; but in the end the ivy was again superseded >y a pine-garland. (Pint. Sympos. v. 3.) Simple as such a reward was, a victor in these games gained the greatest distinc­tion and honour among his countrymen ; and a victory not only rendered the individual who ob­tained it, a subject of admiration, but shed lustre over his family and the whole town or community to which he belonged. Hence Solon established by a law that every Athenian who gained the victory at the Isthmian games, should receive from the public treasury a reward of one hundred drachmae. (Pint. Sol. 23.) His victory was gene­rally celebrated in lofty odes, called Epinikia, or tri­umphal odes, of which we still possess some beau­tiful specimens among the poems of Pindar. (See Massieu in the Mem. de VAcad. des Inscript. et Bell. Lett. v. p. 214, &c. ; Dissen, De Ratione Poctica Carminum Pindaricorum, prefixed to the first volume of his edition of Pindar ; Miiller, Hist, of Greek Lit p. 220, &c. ; Krause, Die Pythien, Nemeen, und Isthmien, p. 165, &c.) [L.S. ]

ITALIA. [colonia ; provincia.]

ITER. [ViAE.]

ITINERIS SERVITUS. [servitutes.]

JUDEX, JUDFCIUM. A Roman magis­trates generally did not investigate the facts in dispute in such matters as were brought before him; he appointed a Judex for that purpose, and gave him instructions. [AcTio ; interdictum.] Accordingly, the whole of Civil procedure was ex­pressed by the two phrases Jus ‘and Judicium, of which the former comprehended all that took place before the magistrates (injure), and the latter all that took place before the judex (in judicio). The meaning of the term Judices in a passage of Livy (iia. 55) is uncertain. In the Theodosian Code the term Judex designates the governor of a province. From the earlier periods to the time of Constan-tine it designated a person, whose functions may be generally understood from what follows.

in many cases a single Judex was appointed : in others, several were appointed, and they seem to have been sometimes called Recuperatores as opposed to the single Judex. (Gains, iv. 104— 109.) Under certain circumstances the Judex was called Arbiter : thus Judex and Arbiter are named together in the Twelve Tables. (Dirksen, Ueber-sicht, &c. p. 725.)

A Judex when appointed was bound to dis­charge the functions of the office, unless he had some valid excuse (excusatio}. A person might also be disqualified from being a Judex. There were certain seasons of the year when legal busi­ness was done at Rome (cum, res agebantur, Gaius, ii. 279), and at these times the services of the judices were required. These legal terms were regulated according to the seasons, so that there.