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PENTATHLON.
called Archemachus, in his Euboica. (Athen. vi. p. 264.) " The Aeolian Boeotians who did not emigrate when their country Thessaly vas conquered by the Thessalians (compare Thuc. i. 12), surrendered themselves to the victors on condition that they should not be carried out of the country (whence, he adds, they were formerly called Mej/eVrat, but afterwards nej/eVrai), nor be put to death, but should cultivate the land for the new owners of the soil, paying by way of rent a portion of the produce of it: and many of them are richer than their masters." They were also called Adrpeis. It appears then that they occupied an intermediate position between freemen and purchased slaves, being reduced to servitude by conquest, and resembling, in their fixed payments, the ‘EKrrj^piot of Attica. Moreover, they were not subject to the whole community, but belonged to particular houses, whence also they were called <dt(r(raoiK€Tai. They were very numerous, for instance, in the families of the Aleuadae and Scopadae. (Theocr. xvi. 35 ; Miiller, Dor. iii. 4. § G.) We may add that amongst the Thessalian Penestae Theopompus includes the descendants of the conquered Magnesians and Perrhaebians (Athen. vi. p. 265), a statement which can only apply to a part of these nations, as, though reduced to dependence, they were not made entirely subject. (Herod, viii. 132; Mull. I.e.)
From a passage in Demosthenes (c. Arist. 687, , 1) it appears that the Penestae sometimes accom panied their masters to battle, and fought on horse back, as their knights or vassals: a circumstance which need not excite surprise, as Thessaly was so famous for cavalry. The Penestae of Thessaly also resembled the Laconian Helots in another re spect ; for they often rose up in arms against their lords. (Arist. Pol. ii. 6.) There were Penestae amongst the Macedonians also. (Miiller, I. c. ; Wachsmuth, Alterthumsk. Hellen. vol. i. pp. 177, 402, 403, 642, 2d eel.; Thirl wall, Hist, of Greece, vol. i. p. 437; Clinton, Fast. Plell. Appendix, c. 22 ) [R. W.I " PENICILLUS. [pictura, No. VI.]
PENTACOSIOMEDIMNI. [census, p. 266, a.]
PENTADORON. [later.]
PENTAETERIS (Trez/raer^ts). [olympia, p. 829, b.]
PENTALITHUS (TrevrdXiBos). [gymnasium, p. 582, a ; talus.]
PENTASPASTON. [machina.]
PENTATHLON (irevraQXov, quinquertium} was next to the pancratium the most beautiful of all athletic performances. (Herod, ix. 33 ; Paus. iii. 11. § 6.) It does not appear to have been known in the heroic ages of Greece, although Apollodorus (ii. 4. § 4), according to the usual practice of later times, describes Perseus as killing Acrisius in the pentathlon, and although its invention was attributed to Peleus. (Schol. ad Find. Nem. vii. 11.) These accounts are fabulous ; the pentathlon was not practised until the time when the great national games of Greece began to nourish. The persons engaged in it were called pentathli (•n-ej/raflAoi, Herod, ix. 75 ; Paus. i. 29. § 4). The pentathlon consisted of five distinct kinds of games, viz. leaping (aA/xa), the foot-race (8po/-ios), the throwing of the discus (5iV/cos), the throwing of the spear (criyvvvos or aK.6vnov and wrestling (iraXt]) (Schol, ad Plat. AmaL p. 135 ; Simonides’ in
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PENTATHLON.
AntJiol. Palat. vol. ii. p. 626, ed. Jacobs), which were all performed in one day and in a certain order, one after the other, by the same athletae. (Schol. ad Soph. El. 691 ; Paus. iii. 11. § 6.) The pentathlon was introduced in the Olympic games in Ol. 18, and we may presume that soon after this it was also introduced at the other national games, as well as at some of the less important festivals, such as the Erotidia in Thespiae. (Bockh, Corp. Inscript. ri. 1590.)
The order in which the different games of the pentathlon followed one another has been the subject of much discussion in modern times. The most probable opinion, however, is Bockh’s (Comment, ad Find. Nem. vii. 71, &c.), which has been adopted by Dissen, Krause, and others, although G. Hermann has combated it in a little work called De Sogenis Aeginetae victoria quinquert. Lipsiae 1822. The order adopted by Bbckh is as follows: — 1. The aAjua. This was the most prominent part of the pentathlon, and was sometimes used to designate the whole game. It was accompanied by flute-music. (Pans. v. 7. § 4, v. 17. § 4.) Other writers, as Pausanias himself (vi. 14. § 5) and Plutarch (De Mas. c. 26) speak as if the whole pentathlon had been accompanied by the flute, but in these passages the whole game seems to be mentioned instead of that particular one which formed the chief part of it. 2. The foot-race. 3. The discus. 4. The throwing of the spear. 5. Wrestling. In later times, probably after 01. 77, the foot-race may have been the fourth game instead of the second, so that the three games which gave to the pentathlon its peculiar character, viz. leaping, discus, and the spear, preceded the foot-race and wrestling, and thus formed the so-called rpia.yfj.6s. The foot-race of the pentathlon was probably the simple stadion or the diaulos, and not a race in armour as has been supposed by some ; for the statues of the victors in the pentathlon are never seen with a shield but only with the halteres, besides which it should be remembered that the race in armour was not introduced at Olyinpia until 01. 65 (Pans. v. 8. § 3). while the pentathlon had been performed long before that time. It is moreover highly improbable that even after 01. 65 the race in armour should have formed a part of the pentathlon. In 01. 38 the pentathlon for boys was introduced at Olympia, but it was only exhibited this one time and afterwards abolished. (Paus. v. 9. §1.)
In leaping, racing, and in throwing the discus or spear, it was easy enough to decide who won the victory, even if several athletae took part in it and contended for the prize simultaneously. In wrestling, however, no more than two persons could be engaged together at a time, and it is not clear how the victory was decided, if there were several pairs of wrestlers. The arrangement probably was, that if a man had conquered his antagonist, he might begin a fresh contest with a second, third, &c., and he who thus conquered the greatest number of adversaries was the victor. It is difficult to conceive in what manner the prize was awarded to the victor in the whole pentathlon ; for an athlete might be conquered in one or two games and be victorious in the others, whereas it can have occurred but seldom that one and the same man gained the victory in all the five. Who of the pentathli then was the victor? Modern writers have said that the prize was either awarded
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