24
Discerning, moreover, that those who train for the footraces add nothing to their courage nor to their morale either, and that those who practice boxing and the like ruin their minds as well as their bodies, you have singled out the noblest and grandest of competitive exercises and the one most in harmony with your natural gifts, one which approximates to the realities of warfare through the habituation to martial weapons and the laborious effort of running, in the magnificence and majesty of the equipment simulates the might of the gods,Certain gods were represented as using chariots, particularly Ares and Poseidon.
25
presents the number and the greatest variety of features and has been deemed worthy of the most valuable prizes. For, apart from those offered, getting the drill and practice in such exercises itself will possess glamor as no paltry prize in the eyes of those who are even moderately ambitious for excellence. The best evidence for this may be found in the poetry of Homer, in which he represents the Greeks and barbarians warring against one another with this equipment.Homeric warriors employed charioteers, dashed recklessly among the foe to spread dismay, and finally dismounted to engage in single combat; Hom. Il. 16.712-867. I may add that even now it is customary to employ it in contests in Greek cities, and not in the meanest cities but in the greatest.Athens and Thebes.
26
So admirable is your choice of sport and so approved among all men. Believing also, as you do, that it is futile to desire the things most worth while, or yet to be physically endowed for all sorts of feats, unless the soul has been prepared for an ambitious career, at the very outset you exhibited diligence in the training grounds, nor in the real tests were you disappointing, but you gave extraordinary proof of the distinction of your natural gifts and particularly of the courage of your soul in the games.
