Cursus
（
δρόμος, τρόχος). Foot-racing. In historic times, at the
national festivals of Greece, several species of it had come into vogue. We may distinguish
four sorts: (
a) the
στάδιον (or simply
δρόμος); (
b) the
δίαυλος; (
c) the
ἐφίππιος or
ἵππιος δρόμος; (
d) the
δολιχὸς δρόμος (or
δόλιχος, proparox). A strange feature in these races was that they were not run
on hard and firm ground (Lucian,
Anachars. 27), but over a deeply sanded
surface.
（
a) The
στάδιον was a race in which
the runners (
σταδιοδρόμοι) traversed the arena in a direct
line (whence it was called
εὐθύς, ἄκαμπτος) from one
extremity to the other. This distance, as measured by the Olympic stadium, which became the
general standard, was about 600 feet. The
στάδιον corresponds
to our “sprint,” in which the runner does the whole run at his highest
speed.
（
b) The
δίαυλος, or double course
(properly= double pipe), required that the runners (
διαυλοδρόμοι) should, after traversing the arena as in the
στάδιον, turn round a post (
καμπτήρ) and run
back to their starting-point. Hence it was called
δρόμος
κάμπειος (from
καμπή=
flexus).
（
c) The
ἐφίππιος or
ἵππιος did not, as might seem from its name, signify a horse-race,
but a race of sufficient length to try the power of a horse. (See Hermann-Blümner,
Privatalt. p. 346.) It was a test therefore of endurance as well as speed,
being four stadia in length; that is, twice the
δίαυλος.
（
d) The true test of staying power, however, was the
δόλιχος or long race, added to the Olympic Games (according to
Philostratus,
Gymn. 12) in Olymp. 15.The length of
this race has been variously described as seven, twelve, twenty, or twentyfour stadia. We may
suppose that it differed on different occasions.
Competition in foot-racing was open to runners of all ages, whether boys (
παῖδες), striplings (
ἀγένειοι), or
grown men (
ἄνδρες). Only those who belonged to the same
class, as regards age (
ἡλικιῶται), were permitted to compete
with one another; seniors, of course, not being allowed to enter against their juniors. In
Sparta even girls ran.
The competitors, being too numerous to contend all together, were entered in successive
groups (
τάξεις); those who should form each group, as well as the order in which the groups should run, being determined by lot
(
συνταχθῆναι ὑπὸ τοῦ κλήρου). When all the
τάξεις in turn had run, the victors in each were formed into one
group, which ran a final heat for the prize.
It is doubtless owing to their want of instruments for accurately measuring small portions
of time that the Greeks have left us scarcely any means of computing the speed which
foot-racers attained in the various kinds of running.
For some special forms of the foot-race, see
Lampadedromia and Staphylodromia.
We have very meagre information regarding foot-racing as practised by the Romans. According
to Dionysius of Halicarnassus (vii. 71, 73), it formed part of the Ludi Magni from the time of
their institution. He, too, tells us that the runners wore the
subligaculum round their loins. In the Capitoline Games (Dio Cass. lxvii. 8) young
women, after the Spartan fashion, took part in the competition. Beyond these scanty notices
and vague references to running for healthful exercise in the Campus Martius, very little has
been handed down to us. This running in the Campus was not always competitive. That it was
sometimes so, however, is plain from Martial, iv. 19. For chariotracing, see
Circus and
Hippodromus.
