Ath. Then next we must remember, about all gymnastic contests, that only the warlike sort of them are to be practised and to have prizes of victory ; and those which are not military are to be given up. The military sort had better be completely described and established by law ; and first, let us speak of running and swiftness.
Cle. Very good.
Ath. Certainly the most military of all qualities is general activity of body, whether of foot or hand. For escaping or for capturing an enemy, quickness of foot is required ; but hand-to-hand conflict and combat need vigour and strength.
Cle. Very true.
Ath. Neither of them can attain their greatest efficiency without arms.
Cle. How can they ?
Ath. Then our herald, in accordance with the prevailing practice, will first summon the runner ; — he will appear armed, for to an unarmed competitor we will not give a prize. And he shall enter first who is to run the single course bearing arms ; next, he who is to run the double course ; third, he who is to run the horse-course ; and fourthly, he who is to run the long course ; the fifth whom we start, shall be the first sent forth in heavy armour, and shall run a course of sixty stadia to some temple of Ares — and we will send forth another, whom we will style the more heavily armed, to run over smoother ground. There remains the archer ; and he shall run in the full equipments of an archer a distance of 100 stadia over mountains, and across every sort of country, to a temple of Apollo and Artemis ; this shall be the order of the contest, and we will wait for them until they return, and will give a prize to the conqueror in each.
Cle. Very good.
Ath. Let us suppose that there are three kinds of contests — one of boys, another of beardless youths, and a third of men. For the youths we will fix the length of the contest at two-thirds, and for the boys at half of the entire course, whether they contend as archers or as heavy armed. Touching the women, let the girls who are not grown up compete naked in the stadium and the double course, and the horse-course and the long course, and let them run on the race-ground itself ; those who are thirteen years of age and upwards until their marriage shall continue to share in contests if they are not more than twenty, and shall be compelled to run up to eighteen ; and they shall descend into the arena in suitable dresses. Let these be the regulations about contests in running both for men and women.
Respecting contests of strength, instead of wrestling and similar contests of the heavier sort, we will institute conflicts in armour of one against one, and two against two, and so on up to ten against ten. As to what a man ought not to suffer or do, and to what extent, in order to gain the victory — as in wrestling, the masters of the art have laid down what is fair and what is not fair, so in fighting in armour — we ought to call in skilful persons, who shall judge for us and be our assessors in the work of legislation ; they shall say who deserves to be victor in combats of this sort, and what he is not to do or have done to him, and in like manner what rule determines who is defeated ; and let these ordinances apply to women until they married as well as to men. The pancration shall have a counterpart in a combat of the light armed ; they shall contend with bows and with light shields and with javelins and in the throwing of stones by slings and by hand : and laws shall be made about it, and rewards and prizes given to him who best fulfils the ordinances of the law.
Next in order we shall have to legislate about the horse contests. Now we do not need many horses, for they cannot be of much use in a country like Crete, and hence we naturally do not take great pains about the rearing of them or about horse races. There is no one who keeps a chariot among us, and any rivalry in such matters would be altogether out of place ; there would be no sense nor any shadow of sense in instituting contests which are not after the manner of our country. And therefore we give our prizes for single horses — for colts who have not yet cast their teeth, and for those who are intermediate, and for the full-grown horses themselves ; and thus our equestrian games will accord with the nature of the country. Let them have conflict and rivalry in these matters in accordance with the law, and let the colonels and generals of horse decide together about all courses and about the armed competitors in them. But we have nothing to say to the unarmed either in gymnastic exercises or in these contests. On the other hand, the Cretan bowman or javelin-man who fights in armour on horseback is useful, and therefore we may as well place a competition of this sort among amusements. Women are not to be forced to compete by laws and ordinances ; but if from previous training they have acquired the habit and are strong enough and like to take part, let them do so, girls as well as boys, and no blame to them.
Thus the competition in gymnastic and the mode of learning it have been described ; and we have spoken also of the toils of the contest, and of daily exercises under the superintendence of masters. Likewise, what relates to music has been, for the most part, completed. But as to rhapsodes and the like, and the contests of choruses which are to perform at feasts, all this shall be arranged when the months and days and years have been appointed for Gods and demi-gods, whether every third year, or again every fifth year, or in whatever way or manner the Gods may put into men’s minds the distribution and order of them. At the same time, we may expect that the musical contests will be celebrated in their turn by the command of the judges and the director of education and the guardians of the law meeting together for this purpose, and themselves becoming legislators of the times and nature and conditions of the choral contests and of dancing in general. What they ought severally to be in language and song, and in the admixture of harmony with rhythm and the dance, has been often declared by the original legislator ; and his successors ought to follow him, making the games and sacrifices duly to correspond at fitting times, and appointing public festivals. It is not difficult to determine how these and the like matters may have a regular order ; nor, again, will the alteration of them do any great good or harm to the state.