horses, as well as the tethrippon and the synoris for the foals.The standard war chariot was built for two men, and left open in the back. However, the chariot used in the two and four horse races only carried the charioteer. Many accidents were caused during these events because to gain an advantage you would strive for the inside of the hippodrome, which many did, causing congestion, leading to accidents. Not to much information has been revealed as far as the exact ruling of the events but it is known that swerving in front of opponents was illegal, except for trying to avoid accidents. The perimeter of the race-course at Olympia was eight stades, one-thousand five-hundred thirty-eight meters (HTMCE 1-2, LAO 2).The pankration was added at the thirty-third Olympiad, in six-forty eight B.C. It is believed that pankration was founded by Theseus, who combined wrestling and boxing together to defeat the fierce Minotaur in the labryinth. According to Philostratos, it is an excellent way to train warriors because this was the primitive way to fight the enemy whether it be human or animal.With no equipment being used in this event, all wrestling holds and boxing blows were legal, with biting and eye gouging not being permitted. The pankration was the toughest of all of the events having no regard to the dangers of the body or the life of either contestant. The pankration had two main forms: the kato pankration- allowed the contest to continue after both opponents fell to the ground, and the ano pankration- were the opponents had to remain standing. With pankratiasts not wearing the lead gloves that the boxers were allowed to wear, they were allowed to hold with one hand and punch with the other, unlike boxing. Different tactics such as the hyptiasmos (back fall), the apopternizein (heel trick), and the gastrizein (stomach kick) were used. The competitors with the advantage were the ones with such physical builds which allowed th...
