Then in the evening, beneath the brightness of the mid-month moon, the precinct rang with revelry and song. The victors and their friends in festal attire, with garlands on their heads, went in glad procession round the Altis, while crowds of fellow-citizens chanted to the accompaniment of the flute the old triumphal refrain of Archilochus,[329] or some new hymn of victory written for the occasion by Pindar or Bacchylides. The victors wore the crowns which they had won, but there is no ground for the statement that they dedicated them to Zeus; rather it seems that they took them home and dedicated them in the temples of their own cities. The processionals followed by banquets given by the victors.[330] Alcibiades after his victory in the chariot-race entertained the whole assembly at a feast, and borrowed for the occasion all the plate and vessels belonging to the Athenian theoroi. Anaxilas of Rhegium and his son Leophron celebrated their victories in like manner. Empedocles of Aetna being a Pythagorean, and therefore a vegetarian, had an ox made of costly spices, which he distributed to the spectators. The banquets often lasted all night long, and in the morning the victors paid their vows and offered sacrifices to the gods to whom they owed their victories. The most brilliant of all the ceremonies was the great sacrifice to Zeus on the morning after the full moon. The victors, the officials and the representatives of the different states, went in stately procession to the altar, where a hecatomb of oxen was sacrificed by the Eleans. This was the opportunity for the theoroi to display their magnificence and the wealth of their cities. So we can understand the indignation of the Athenians at Alcibiades[331] when instead of returning to the theoroi the vessels which he had borrowed for his banquet the evening before, he used them the next morning for his private offering; so that when a few hours later the Athenian theoroi took part in the public procession, the positions were reversed, and the magnificence of the State appeared but as the reflection of the magnificence of a private citizen. Of the sacrifices, processions, and rejoicings on the last day of the festival we know no details save that in the evening all the victors were entertained at a public banquet in the Prytaneum. The rewards and honours which they received on their return home have been described in a previous chapter. Footnote 284: L. Weniger, _Clio_, 1905, pp. 1-38. Footnote 285: L. Weniger, _Clio_, 1904, pp. 126 ff. Footnote 286: _Ib._ p. 127, n. 1. Footnote 287: Quoted in Schol. Pindar, _Ol._ v. 6. Footnote 288: