• 1 Leschhorn 1998, p. 31.
• 2 Nielsen 2016, p. 38-39, suggests that even in the classical period, when athletics was practiced i (...)
• 3 This list can be compiled on the basis of IG VII 49, I.Tralleis 135, FD III 1:89, FD III 1:550, FD(...)
• 4 The standard study is MacMullen 1982. In a follow-up publication (MacMullen 1986), he shows that t (...)
• 5 Remijsen 2010a. Here I argue against proposals for an earlier introduction, which are based on the (...)
• 6 Attested in Libanius, Ep. 663.
• 7 Wallner 1997, p. 103, 108, 138, 147, 152, 157; Leschhorn 1998, p. 46-57. As my list is not based o (...)

1Although they are famous for being the last surviving athletic contest in the Greco-Roman world, the Olympic games of Antioch started off conventionally. In their early days, they were just one among many similar contests. Some 500 agones are attested across the eastern Mediterranean in the imperial period, but given the fragmentary nature of our evidence, the total number would have been higher. 1 Most minor poleis had at least one agon, and major poleis often had more than three. With several hundreds of cities in the eastern half of the Mediterranean the actual number of agones around ad 200 may have reached over a thousand. 2 For larger events on this large-scale circuit of contests, Olympia was a rather common name. Apart from the original Olympics – which now needed to be distinguished from the many others as the Olympics of Pisa – inscriptions of the second and third centuries ad mention games for Olympian Zeus in Adana, Athens, Alexandria, Anazarbos, Antioch, Beroia, Ephesus, Epidaurus, Kyzikos, Lebadeia, Pergamon, Smyrna, Sparta, Tarsus, Thebes and Tralleis. 3 Quantitative analysis shows how the lively epigraphic culture celebrating polis elites and events reached its high point in the 180s, after which it gradually declined. 4 For this reason, the Olympia of Antioch, founded only in ad 212, are not prominent in the epigraphic record. They would indeed have been poorly attested had there not been a cluster of literature by Antiochene authors from late antiquity. 5 The same goes for the Olympics of nearby Apamea. 6 For other Olympics instituted in the third century, when the epigraphic habit was already on the wane, provincial coins fill some of the gaps in our knowledge. In this way, Damascus, Hierapolis, Magnesia ad Sipylum, Miletus, Perge, Prusa ad Olympum, Side, Tabai, Thyateira and Tyre can be added to the list of cities with Olympia. 7

• 8 Lehner 2004, passim.
• 9 SEG 56 1359, l. 72-74 (a letter of Hadrian concerning the agonistic calendar).
• 10 For Olympia, see Philostratus, Vita Apollonii 5.43; for Antioch, see John Chrysostom, In principiu (...)
• 11 Strasser 2004-2005, p. 437, 443. For the Alexandrian agones, see also Remijsen 2014, p. 192-195.
• 12 Remijsen 2010a, p. 420-428.

2The Olympic games of Antioch can best be compared to those of Alexandria and Ephesus, as these three cities were all populous centers of power. The Olympics of Ephesus were founded in the late first or early second century ad, when the city already organized Epheseia, Koina Asias and Balbilleia, which all continued into the third century. 8 In order to ensure that the new Olympics would be attractive to the cream of international athletes, who already had a full schedule involving much travel, the Ephesian Olympia and Balbilleia were held in immediate succession, shortly after games at nearby Smyrna. Because major contests required athletes to be present long in advance for preselection purposes both contests together covered 52 days. 9 Presumably, the first 30 days represent the preparation for the Olympics, as this period is attested for Antioch and Olympia. 10 The Alexandrian Olympia, which were probably introduced in the winter of ad 175-176, were likewise added to a local agonistic scene with at least two preexisting quadrennial games. Again, the Olympics were scheduled in close proximity to the pre-existing contests, as in the busy schedule of champion athletes there was no scope for a double visit to Egypt. 11 The Olympics seem to have been the last major contest to be added in Alexandria, just like they were in Antioch, where in ad 212 Olympics were added to the agon of Eukrates, the Hadrianeia and the agon of the Syrian koinon. Here too, all contests were scheduled in close calendrical proximity to ensure international presence. 12

• 13 Malalas 9.20 and 10.27: an agonistic fund with an annual rent of 15 golden talents bequeathed to A (...)
• 14 Downey’s idea that the Olympics of Antioch were presided over by the syriarch was convincingly ref (...)
• 15 Remijsen 2009, p. 130-133.
• 16 For Diocletian as alytarch, see Malalas 12.44. For a coin celebrating the alytarchia of Septimius (...)
• 17 For Antioch, see Libanius, Or. 10.15; for Alexandria, see I.Portes 88, discussed in Strasser 2004- (...)

3Little is known about the practical organization of the Alexandrian Olympics, but for Ephesus it is clear that the Olympics were paid for by the proceedings of an earmarked fund, presumably an estate, which had been donated by one of the city’s leading citizens in the late first century ad, Tiberius Claudius Nysios. For this benefaction, he was honored as “agonothetes for eternity” for over a century. The existence of agonothetic estates, as such earmarked land is called in Late Antique legal texts, is also described by Malalas for Antioch. 13 An eternal agonothetes should not be confused with the acting president of the games, who changed with each edition. Both Antioch and Ephesus are known to have followed the imperial-age practice of Olympia of having a president called the alytarches. 14 Originally this title referred to a liturgical official paying for security services at the games, but it became a veritable presidency of the games in the early imperial period, no doubt because as a liturgical office for one, it had more potential for gaining honor than being chosen by lot as one of the ten hellanodikai. 15 In Antioch, the alytarchy was so prestigious that Diocletian personally took up the office, but again this was not unique. Septimius Severus is known to have acted as alytarch for the Olympics of Anazarbus. 16 Judging the fairness and winner of the contests continued to be the task of hellanodikai, who are attested for Antioch, Alexandria and Ephesus alike. 17

• 18 For games held east of Alexandria, see Remijsen 2010b, p. 196-199. The identification of Hiera Nes (...)
• 19 The earliest recorded games are those of Antiochus III in 195 bc (Livy 33.49) and the grand games (...)
• 20 Dimde 2016.

4Whereas all Ephesian games must have taken place in the Hellenistic stadium inside the city walls, Alexandria and Antioch both had two areas for games, one within the city walls and one in a rural sanctuary several kilometers outside of the city. Alexandria’s first major contest, the Ptolemaia, was held at the site of Hiera Nesos (“sacred island”) between Alexandria and Canopus. The Roman conquerors founded the military town Nikopolis in this area and continued to hold agones there. Within the city walls there was also a small circus called the Lageion. 18 Unfortunately, we do not know which agones were held where. In Roman Antioch, we find a similar division between games in the city center and at the religious site at Daphne, where the earliest recorded Hellenistic agones took place and also the imperial-age Olympics. 19 The existence of a special festival area near a sanctuary outside the city is connected to the early Hellenistic history of Alexandria and Antioch. Around 300 bc, the rural sanctuaries of Olympia, Nemea or on the Isthmus provided the norm for prestigious agonistic events. Here, contests took place on simple, but clearly demarcated and professionally drained racetracks surrounded by natural and artificial slopes creating a good view for the spectators. They formed the point of reference for the third-century Hellenistic kings. Only in the course of the third and second centuries bc was a monumental stadium architecture developed, which included mechanical (and hence fixed) starting gates and tunnels for a dramatic entry of the athletes. These more monumental stadia were increasingly built in urban contexts. 20

• 21 Remijsen 2015, esp. p. 343-348.
• 22 See Remijsen 2015, passim. There is fourth-century evidence for games in the diocesan capitals Car (...)
• 23 IK Ephesus 43, discussion in Remijsen 2015, p. 78-80.
• 24 Liebeschuetz 1972, p. 143.
• 25 Cod. Theod. 15.5.1 (ad 372) forbids governors to move games in smaller cities to the capitals wher (...)

5Due to the changing epigraphic habit and the disappearance of provincial coins, the enormous network of imperial-age contests falls almost entirely off the radar in the second half of the third century ad. People continued to enjoy watching athletic contests, however, and sacrifices were removed from the festivals in the mid-fourth century to facilitate Christian participation. The number of people actively involved in the games diminished nevertheless. Due to a combination of a changing political culture, new administrative structures and a mental shift in which the perception of athletic prowess and ambition gradually moved from virtue to vanity, the network of contests disintegrated in the course of the fourth century. 21 Alexandria, Antioch and Ephesus, however, became provincial and diocesan capitals after the Diocletian reform of the provinces and for such cities we have good evidence for the continued existence of agones into the second half of the fourth century. 22 The picture emerging from Late Antique sources that capital cities became focal points for Greek sport may to a certain extent be exaggerated by the dearth of information on smaller centers, but it is not coincidence. According to an imperial rescript regulating the liturgies related to games in the province of Asia in 372, the alytarchy of the Ephesian Olympics could be taken up either by a local councilor or by a member of the city council of one of the minor cities in the province. This suggests that the Olympics in the capital were the only, or at least the only prestigious, agon left in the province. 23 Because of the increased burden on councilors in the fourth century, only the richest members of the curia could perform the particularly heavy liturgies connected to agones. In Antioch, two very rich families dominated the alytarchy in the mid-fourth century. 24 Governors, moreover, took up a bigger role than before in the organization of games, and it was in the capital cities that they wanted to show off their magnanimity. Another constitution from 372 is directed against governors who took over the presidency of the games (and all the honor that came with it) and transferred them to their own seat, at the expense of the local curiales who were still required to carry the financial burden of the liturgy, without enjoying any of the benefits. 25

• 26 For the alytarch see IK Ephesus 447, with christogram. For the date see Ladstätter and Steskal 200 (...)
• 27 Libanius, Ep. 843 and 1278.
• 28 Malalas 17.13. Severus Antiochenus, Hom. 91, 94 and 95 (PO 25).

6The end of the Olympic games of Ephesus can be placed around 420: the last reference to an alytarch, a Christian, can be dated to the 410s and the stadium stopped being maintained in the 420s. 26 There is no such evidence for the games at Alexandria. Libanius assumes that the city had an active athletic scene in the later fourth century, but there is no similar evidence for the fifth century. 27 The Antiochene Olympics, on the other hand, undoubtedly survived the fifth century. Malalas’ information that the last edition took place in 520 is confirmed by a reference to the games in a sermon from the year 516. 28 From the early fifth century on, therefore, the Antioch Olympics clearly represent a special case. The following section will argue that these games had a better chance of survival than many other similar contests because of their location in Antioch and in Daphne more specifically.

• 29 Cod. Iust. 1.36.1: Imperator Leo. Titulos, qui alytarchiae et syriarchiae muneribus in prima Syria (...)
• 30 Libanius, Or. 10, 10-13.
• 31 Malalas 14.17. PLRE II, p. 104.
• 32 Perhaps Aphrodisias had games for almost as long as Antioch. Two fifth-century inscriptions (one o (...)

7Antioch was not a diocesan capital just like Alexandria or Ephesus. Ephesus was smaller and less populous and Alexandria, though similarly sized, was only upgraded to diocesan capital under Valens. Antioch was clearly the most prominent of the three: it functioned repeatedly as temporary imperial residence in the fourth century and was capital to the large, rich and strategically important diocese Oriens. The governor of this diocese was therefore not a normal vicarius, but the comes orientis, who had similar responsibilities, but the higher rank of count. This comes orientis played a crucial role in the survival of the Antiochene Olympics. In ad 465, emperor Leo ordained that curiales no longer had the right to take up the liturgy of the alytarchy, but that this office had to be performed by the comes orientis. 29 The constitution can be seen as a formalization of the pre-existing reality of increased involvement of provincial governors and higher officials in games. Proclus, the comes orientis of 384, already associated himself with the Olympics when he aggrandized the Plethrion, where the preselection of the Olympic games took place. 30 By making such voluntary involvement of comites structural, the law put an end to cases of misuse of high officials enjoying honor at the expense of liturgists. Conversely, it also protected the comites from claims on these games as an arena for self-promotion by even higher officials. This may have happened in 448, when the praefectus praetorio Orientis Antiochos Chouzon provided funds for the Olympics, which suggests that he may have presided over the games in that year. 31 With this constitution, the financial organization of the Antiochene Olympics, the last (or at least one of the last) surviving agones, was structurally adapted to the Late Antique reality. 32

• 33 SEG 37 843 (ca ad 220) and FD III.1 555 = IAG 87 (ca ad 250).

8If the status of Antioch was the sole determinant of the destiny of its games, however, all Antiochene agones had a good chance of survival. In the third-century evidence, the Olympics do not yet seem the most prominent of the various contests organized here. The Hadrianeia and the agon of Eukrates appear on two mid-third-century monuments for international champions who do not mention the Olympics. 33 In the fourth-century literary corpus of Libanius, however, these other agones are absent, whereas the rhetorician clearly takes pride in the Olympics. It is worth exploring within the framework of this volume whether their focus on Daphne gave the Olympics an edge over other events in Antioch.

• 34 Reitzenstein 2014, nr. 6, l. 26-29: ἐν Ἀντιοχείᾳ Ὀλύμπια τ[ὰ] / ἐν Δάφνῃ, κοινὸν Συρίας ἐν Ἀν/τιοχ (...)
• 35 IAph2007 12.711, FD III.1 547, I.Side 130, SEG 37 843.

9Malalas (12.38) suggests that the games only moved to Daphne in the reign of Diocletian, but a new discovery has proven that they were held here already under Caracalla. In 2014, a new fragment was published of the only inscription attesting the Antiochene Olympics, a victor inscription from Tlos (TAM II 587). It completes the clause ἐν Ἀντιοχείᾳ Ὀλύμπια τ[ὰ] – previously completed with [β] as a reference to a double victory – with ἐν Δάφνῃ and adds victories at the koina Syrias and Hadrianeia held in Antioch itself. 34 Other inscriptions locate various Antiochene contests, in particular the agon of Eukrates and the Hadrianeia, in Antioch “near Daphne.” 35 Here, Daphne is explicitly not the location, but a means to distinguish Syrian Antioch from the many other cities with that name. With the choice for Daphne, the founders of the Olympics departed, therefore, from the normal practice of the second century ad of holding games in the city center. Their choice was not self-evident.

• 36 According to Malalas 9.21 the hippodrome was built by Marcius Rex, who visited Philip II Epiphanes (...)
• 37 Humphrey 1986, p. 438-441; Humphrey 1996, p. 123-124. The erection of a Roman circus for a Greek a (...)
• 38 Pre-tetrarchic circuses in Syria and Egypt were, for example, built in Alexandria, Cyrene, Antioch (...)
• 39 This building cannot be identified with certainty with one of the known types of sports facilities (...)
• 40 Croke 1990, p. 7.

10There was no practical reason to move out of the city, as the center of Antioch had state-of-the-art sporting facilities. In the late first century ad, a circus was constructed on the island on the Orontes. 36 As chariot racing in the Roman style only became popular in the fourth century, circuses built before the Tetrarchic period in the Eastern Mediterranean were primarily intended for agones, which included both athletic and equestrian events. 37 Most early circuses in the East can be found in cities in Syria and Egypt, because unlike in Asia, where many cities had pre-existing stadia, these regions only became well integrated in the network of Greek contests under the Roman Empire and at that point they built up a sporting infrastructure according to the latest fashion. 38 The disadvantage of a circus for the athletic part of the competition is the greater distance between spectator and athlete. It is possible, therefore, that some events, in particular matches in the combat sports, were held in the theater or in the so-called monomacheion, both of which were located on the slopes of Mount Silpius and are dated to the reign of Caesar by Malalas (9.5). 39 For all such dates by Malalas it should be noted that the chronicler rarely distinguishes between a new construction and a renovation. 40

• 41 All four Byzantine manuscripts of Libanius, Or. 10 agree on the spelling Πλέθρον, which would pure (...)
• 42 Cf. Saliou 2014, p. 670, for the Olympic identity of the complex.
• 43 Only in the Plethrion: Libanius, Or. 10.33 suggests moving events to the nearby “elongated theatre (...)
• 44 Or. 10.1, 5, 9, 13.

11Later in the imperial period, an alternative location for games was added, with room for fewer spectators than in the circus, but they were in closer proximity to the athletes. In the area of the later forum of Valens, a large bathing complex and a running track or xystos, including stone seating, is dated by Malalas to Commodus (12.2). At a somewhat later date, in ad 193 according to Malalas, a large palaestra called the Plethrion (12.16) was added to this complex, which would by then have occupied thousands of square meters in the center of the city. 41 I am hesitant to accept that this addition – or at least the naming of this building – preceded the foundation of the Olympics in ad 212. Malalas’ attribution to Didius Julianus is problematic, as that ruler reigned for little more than two months, during which he had no reason to spend money in Antioch, as this was the base of his opponent Pescennius Niger. The name of the building is a reference to a palaestra in Elis, where athletes trained in anticipation of the main Olympics, and it thus links the entire complex to the Olympic games. 42 Preselection events are known to have taken place here. 43 Even these drew a crowd. Libanius describes how the rows of stone seats surrounding the wrestling pit, originally only two, were multiplied in the 330s, and again in the 380s. 44 When the actual festival started after the preparatory month, however, the whole crowd moved to Daphne.

• 45 Libanius, Or. 11.236 bis. For the mosaic, see the contribution of Saliou in this volume.
• 46 Leblanc and Poccardi 1999-2000.
• 47 Humphrey 1996, p. 123-124.
• 48 The results of the excavations at Caesarea are published in Porath 2013. The exterior measurements (...)

12In Late Antiquity, the sporting accommodation at Daphne was intimately connected with the local Olympics. Libanius called it the “Olympic stadium” (στάδιον Ὀλυμπικόν), and the famous topographical border of the Yakto mosaic refers to it as το ολυμπιακον. 45 Very little is known about this “Olympic stadium” at Daphne. About twenty years ago, Leblanc and Poccardi located in ancient Daphne an artificially shaped area of about 320 m to 80 m cut into the rock and rounded on one side. 46 These dimensions would fit a large stadium or a small circus, either of which could serve for both athletic and equestrian events, and could be referred to as a στάδιον. 47 Apart from one ancient wall on the west side of the sphendone (rounded side), no architectural remains are visible at the suggested location. The depiction of the stadium on the Yakto mosaic shows a monumentalized building with a tower attached to the sphendone, two lower towers on both sides of the entrance, a rather high podium wall surrounding the track and two levels of stone seats. Both on this image and in the structure discovered by Leblanc and Poccardi, the curved side is to the right of the building’s entrance to the road, which is a strong argument for the identification of the two. A high podium wall is consistent with Roman circus architecture. The mosaic shows no grand euripus as in bigger circuses, but a lean barrier is suggested by the mosaic by the use of different shades for the two halves of the arena, which again points to a circus. Other circuses similar in size and shape are the Herodian hippodrome at Caesarea and the circus of Gerasa. 48 The small dimensions at Daphne are consistent with a circus built on the same site as the Hellenistic stadium, and reusing the slopes cut out of the rocks.

• 49 Another reference to this “old hippodrome” in 9.21.
• 50 Coins of Diocletian and Maximian were found under a thick ash layer. Above this layer, the remains (...)
• 51 Campbell 1934, p. 32-33; Humphrey 1986, p. 458.
• 52 This was clearly the case as late as 507. Malalas 16.6 sets an anti-Semitic riot led by the famous (...)

13There is no archeological evidence for the date of the building. Malalas presents it as part of the building program of Diocletian (12.38). The emperor also constructed a sanctuary for Zeus Olympios in the stadium, and one for Nemesis on the sphendone. Since the tetrarchs are known for building palaces and circuses in close proximity, it is interesting that Malalas mentions palaces in both the city and at Daphne, the latter of which seems to be new. Recent excavations have shown that the circus in the city center, which Malalas calls the “old hippodrome,” already went out of use around ad 300. 49 A thick ash layer, dated to shortly after ad 290-294 on the basis of coin finds, suggests a sudden ending caused by a fire. 50 Humphrey, who still assumed that the urban circus was in use until the earthquake of 548, suggested the Antiochenes referred to the urban circus as “the old one” in order to distinguish it from the so-called Byzantine stadium, an enclosure with the dimensions and shape of a smallish circus, but surrounded by a brick arcade rather than by sloped seating area and dated to the late fifth or early sixth century. 51 This needs to be reconsidered in the light of the new discoveries: if the “old” circus already went out of use by ad 300, the horse races of the fourth and fifth centuries – the time in which Roman-style horse racing became popular in the East – may very well have taken place in the “Olympic stadium.” 52

• 53 Weiss 2014, p. 69.
• 54 I.Sinope 105 contains the only certain attestation of these games.
• 55 Herodian 3.6.9; Historia Augusta, Vit. Severi 9.4-5; Cassius Dio 74.8.4, 74.14.3-5.
• 56 Historia Augusta, Caracalla 1.7.
• 57 Malalas 12.20.

14That the circus was a donation by Diocletian seems quite credible knowing that his reign saw the destruction of the older circus. The Olympics took place in Daphne as early as the reign of Caracalla, however. One possible scenario is that they used the Hellenistic stadium in the first 90 years of the games. In Olympia, such a simple structure without stone seats proved functional into late antiquity. Such a setting would, however, have contrasted sharply with the modern infrastructure in the center. Another option is that Diocletian merely renovated a preexisting circus. Several Syrian circuses of similar size are dated to the second century ad. 53 At the time, Antioch briefly celebrated Pythian games, which may have been held in Daphne too, since the ritual of this festival must have focused on the Apollo temple. 54 An argument could also be made for an unrecorded Severan construction phase, because Malalas’ report on Caracalla’s building activities is not preserved. After Septimius Severus had secured his reign, he punished several cities that had sided with his enemies, in particular Byzantium and Antioch, which were deprived of their polis status and reduced to villages. 55 After a while, however, they were restored to their previous status, supposedly because of an intercession by the young Caracalla, who became co-emperor. 56 Malalas, who shows no awareness of the cities’ infelicitous political choices and subsequent disgraces, records the grandiose rebuilding of Byzantium, which included a hippodrome, unfinished until the reign of Constantine, but only mentions a thermal complex for Antioch. 57 Of course, Byzantium was more scarred by the war than Antioch, but some conciliatory building projects could be envisaged here as well. At the end of Caracalla’s sole reign, his Syrian mother was based in Antioch during his Parthian campaign, so some generosity towards the city is to be expected in this period as well.

• 58 Malalas 11.8.

15Of course, we only need such a hypothetical earlier construction phase for the stadium if we want to pinpoint a practical reason for the organizers to prefer Daphne over the city center. Clearly, the reason was not practical. Nor does it seem to have been related to cult. The monumental temple for Zeus at Daphne, built after the big earthquake of 115, was dedicated to Zeus Soter, but the ritual of the Olympics must have focused on an altar for Zeus Olympios. 58 According to Malalas (12.38), a shrine to Olympian Zeus was incorporated in the stadium only by Diocletian. In order to understand the choice for Daphne, we should stop treating the kilometers between the city center and the – in ad 212 possibly substandard – sporting facilities at Daphne as a logistical challenge, but as an integral part of the festival, and perhaps even the motivation for the location. The participants did not just go to Daphne, they travelled in a festive procession.

• 59 Waszink 1947; Binder 1998. Koch 2007, p. 14-15, collects examples in which the Antiochene preacher (...)
• 60 PO 25, p. 25-26.
• 61 PO 25, p. 73.
• 62 PO 25, p. 94. Translation from Syriac by Maurice Brière.
• 63 Palladius, Dialogus de vita Chrysostomi 16.102 (SC 341).
• 64 Kahlos 2005; Sandwell 2007, p. 3-20; Rebillard 2012, esp. p. 74-75.

16Processions were central elements of ancient festivals. Seeing and hearing the procession on its way to the site of the games would draw people to the merriment. For this reason, many Christian preachers focus their criticism of ancient festivals on the processions. Pompa diaboli becomes a general expression for all spectacles, and even for all pagan evils a Christian should renounce. 59 In his sermons from the summer of 516, Severus of Antioch repeatedly preaches against the Olympics. In Homily 91, he compares the metaphorical athlete Athanasius to the violent athletes of the Olympics, which clearly had arrived in town and were on the minds of the people. The bishop expected that Christians would be going off to Daphne soon. 60 In Homily 94, he invites his flock to come fight in his Christian arena, rather than in the one at Daphne “which is madly anticipated.” 61 Homily 95 seems to coincide with the festival. Here the bishop pays particular attention to the procession: “Mais, ceux qui sont montés à Daphné d’une manière païenne ont estimé comme rien la vérité, qui est si terrible (et) à cause de laquelle tout s’agite et tremble. […] Car, toutes les fois que d’un côté tu changes de vêtement et que d’un autre côté tu montes ensuite au spectacle, en étant vêtu d’une toute petite tunique de lin, qui cache les bras et pas les mains en agitant vers le haut un bâton de férule et en ayant, pour ainsi dire, toute ta peau rasée avec un rasoir, voici, n’est-ce pas d’une manière évidente que tu as fait une procession et que tu as fêté Jupiter Olympien ?” 62 Although he clearly thought of the Olympics as a remnant of pagan cult, incompatible with a Christian identity, his injunctions clearly show that most of his flock did not. Palladius describes the church as virtually empty during the Olympic festival of ad 404, as all had left the city for Daphne. 63 Sermons admonish people to see every aspect of their lives in terms of their Christian identity, but in reality, their understanding of their own actions was determined by many more identifications, such as with their family, profession or city. 64 The Olympic procession invited primarily an identification with the city and its civic community.

• 65 Latham 2016, p. 6.
• 66 Nielsen 2007, p. 45-47.
• 67 Hellenica 7.4.28.
• 68 Libanius, Or. 11.234-236.
• 69 Lassus 1969.
• 70 Latham 2016, p. 72-73.

17Recent studies on processions show that these are the perfect tools for making a statement about the civic community. They are spatial narratives: the trajectory strings together meaningful locations, thus creating an idealized image of the polis. 65 They also visualized the link between polis and festival. The procession between Elis and Olympia, no less than 58 km long, formed a clear statement of the ownership of the sanctuary by Elis, which was repeatedly disputed in the archaic and classical period. 66 The quadrennial repetition of this procession influenced travelers’ mental map of the Elean plain; even in a military context, Xenophon calls the route the Ὀλυμπιακὴ ὁδός. 67 In the case of Antioch, a shorter and more urban “Olympic route” would have started from the area of the Kaisareion (where the alytarch prepared himself) and the nearby “Olympic” sporting complex in the eastern half of the city. From there, it led to the central avenue, and, through the centre, to the southern gate, from where it continued to Daphne. According to Libanius, once outside of the gates, one would see gardens, luxurious baths, villas and vineyards. Arriving in Daphne, one would be once more amazed by spectacular buildings such as the temples of Apollo and Zeus and of course the Olympic stadium. 68 Many of the sights on the route can unfortunately not be reconstructed with certainty. If, however, Lassus is right to identify the topographical border of the Yakto mosaic with the road from Antioch to Daphne, this might show part of the route in the later fifth century. 69 The exact route and its meaning could change with time: the original route dotted with temples and imperial monuments would by the sixth century have been transformed into a route including Christian buildings and honoring new emperors, in line with how the Antiochenes of the day understood themselves. 70 Similarly, we can assume that the statues of gods that must have been carried along in the third century, were at some point abandoned.

• 71 Based on descriptions of better-known processions, such as the pompa circensis (Latham 2016, p. 23 (...)

18The composition of the procession told a story of inclusion and hierarchy. Participation bridged the religious fissures of the community, but also confirmed existing hierarchies. Walking at the head of the procession was a great privilege. Typically, it would be headed by the president of the games, in this case the alytarch. This made his high status visible to all spectators along the route. After him would follow other privileged members of the community, such as magistrates, councilors and previous victors. Also part of the processions were of course all the participants in the games and additional performers such as musicians, dancers and acrobats. 71

• 72 Malalas 17.13 is slightly confusing regarding the date. He says that they were forbidden “from the (...)

20Eventually, the games did come to an end. Although Severus’ protest suggests that the Olympics were still very popular in the city in ad 516, this edition was the one but last. 72 Unlike for any other agon, we even have a relatively detailed description of the context. Malalas (17.13) states that the Olympics were forbidden by emperor Justin I. The immediately preceding passage (17.12) places this decision in the context of a general ban on games in the city, in reaction to riots of the Blues in multiple cities in the early 520s. The reference to the Constantinopolitan prefect Theodotos dates these to ad 523.

• 73 Lim 1997, p. 166-175.
• 74 Remijsen 2015, p. 217-219.
• 75 Libanius, Or. 20.6.
• 76 John Chrysostom, Hom. de stat. 21, the Easter sermon of April 25, 387, discusses how bishop Flavian (...)
• 77 Most quadrennial games in Antioch seem to have been scheduled in years divisible by four. The punis (...)

21As Lim has rightly pointed out, the circus factions had no role in the organization of the Olympic games. This raises, for him, several questions, in particular why the Olympics were included in the ban and why it was permanent. His answer that the expensive Olympics were abolished because they did not contribute to imperial ceremonial focuses mostly on the first of these questions. 73 This, however, is not the most pertinent. General bans on all types of divertissements were a common means to punish riotous cities. 74 Angry emperors did not make exceptions, just because one particular pleasure had no relation to the riot. After the riot of the statues in 387, for example, an angry protest against new taxes that had started with a reading of the imperial letter and had led to the smashing of imperial statues, Theodosius I had all theaters and baths closed and races cancelled. 75 The Olympics are not included in the description of this punishment, as the ban was lifted around Easter, a full year before the next Olympics would take place. 76 In 176 and 196, however, agones may have been interrupted because of the punishment of Antioch for its support for the usurpers Avidius Cassius and Pescennius Niger. 77

• 78 Malalas 17.14, 17.16, 18.27.
• 79 Legal exceptions were made for these situations: SEG 56 1359, l. 8-13; Cod.Iust. 11.42.1. Cf. Remij (...)
• 80 For an overview of the disasters in the second quarter of the sixth century, see Downey 1963, p. 24 (...)

22Since such bans were by nature temporary, the more important question is why the Olympics did not return in 528. One does not have to look far: a great fire in 525 and major earthquakes in 526 and 528 would have made the organization of the games impossible. 78 Agonistic funds represented readily available stores of money in time of dire need. 79 With the sack of the city by the Persians in 540 and the arrival of the Justinianic plague soon after, the days of Olympic merriment never returned. 80