The classification of competitors according to age varied at different festivals. At Olympia and Delphi there were only two classes, men and boys. An inscription containing regulations for the Augustalia at Neapolis lays down that competitors in boys’ events must be over seventeen and under twenty years of age.[460] As the Augustalia were modelled closely on the Olympia, it seems probable that these were the Olympic limits of age. But it is reasonable to suppose that a certain latitude was allowed, and that the Hellanodicae exercised considerable discretion in their judgment, taking into account not merely a competitor’s reputed age, but also his size and strength. Thus we are told that Agesilaus induced the officials to admit as a competitor in the boys’ competitions a young Athenian whom they would otherwise have disqualified because he was bigger than the other boys. On the other hand, one Nicasylus of Rhodes, who was eighteen years of age, was actually disqualified, and accordingly entered for and won the men’s competition.[461] The possibility of a boy winning among men proves that the upper limit of age was a high one. It is mentioned as a remarkable record that a youth of twenty should be victorious in the open events at all the four Panhellenic festivals.[462] In view of these facts, we may regard with some suspicion the story told by Pausanias that one Damiscus of Messene won the boys’ foot-race at the tender age of twelve![463] At the Nemea and Isthmia we find a threefold division into boys, youths (ἀγένειοι), and men. The ages denoted by these terms varied according to the regulations of different festivals. In later inscriptions we find the expressions “Pythian boys,” “Isthmian boys” used to denote boys within the limits of age prescribed at these festivals.[464] Approximately it seems likely that the boys were those between the ages of twelve and sixteen, the beardless those between sixteen and twenty.[465] Elsewhere, especially in local competitions, we have a far more elaborate classification. At the Erotidia in Boeotia the boys were divided into “the younger” and “the older.”[466] In Chios we find five classes—boys, younger epheboi, middle epheboi, older epheboi, men.[467] At the Athenian Thesea there are competitions for boys of the first, second, and third ages, confined to Athenians, and an open competition for boys of any age.[468] Similarly, in the girls’ foot-races at the Olympic Heraea the girls are divided into three ages.[469]