So much importance was attached to the games in the popular mind, and the fame of the winner spread so widely over the Hellenic world, that to wear the victor’s wreath on such an occasion became one of the highest honors a Greek could covet. At first the prizes offered possessed intrinsic value; but as victory became more and more a sufficient recompense in itself, they were restricted to the simple crown of sacred wild olive, placed upon the brow of the successful athlete. There were other rewards than this, however. In recognition of the honor done to them the citizens of the victor’s town sometimes received him with extraordinary demonstrations. It might be that, clad in purple, he entered the gates in a chariot drawn by white horses, and made his way through singing and cheering throngs to hang his wreath as an offering in the principal temple. We even hear of city walls torn down to make a passage, as though where such a citizen dwelt there was no need of other defense. The choral ode which greeted him might have been composed for the occasion by lyric poets like Pindar and Bacchylides.[2] His statue would be set up in the home city, or placed within the sacred enclosure at Olympia. He was perhaps granted a seat of honor in the theater, and provided with board at the public table for the rest of his life. Solon, at Athens, is said to have offered five hundred drachmæ to an Olympian victor, and one hundred in the case of other national festivals. At Olympia the gymnastic competitions were the only ones. There were many among the visitors, however, who did not fail to take advantage of the great crowds to advance some private interest. Historians, philosophers and rhetoricians, poets, painters, and sculptors found listeners and patrons. The occasion was also one of commercial interchange, like the great fairs of the middle ages, or the religious gatherings at Mecca and Medina. To other proofs of the wide influence exerted by the games are to be added the facts that the length of the race course in the stadium at Olympia was adopted as the standard unit for measuring distances, and that in the third century before Christ Greek historians began generally to employ as a unit of time the Olympiad, or four-year period including one celebration and extending to the next, designating each by the name of the victor in the foot-race at its particular festival. The first recorded Olympic festival was held in 776 B.C., and they were not finally abolished till 394 A.D.—a period of 293 Olympiads.