In the diaulos and hippios the style must have been less violent. Perhaps some of the existing vases represent these events, but owing to the absence of any inscription we cannot say for certain. One fragment found at Athens bears the inscription “I am a diaulos runner”; and the style, as we should expect, is a compromise between that of the sprinter and that of the long-distance runner. The arms are swung, but not as violently as in the sprint, while the stride is long and even, the knees not raised unduly.[500] On another fragment found at Athens we find the position of the arms typical of the dolichos combined with the high action of the sprinter. Unfortunately this fragment is uninscribed.[501] [Illustration: Fig. 53. Panathenaic amphora. Fourth century. (Stephani, _C. R. Atlas_, 1876, Pl. i.)] The physical types represented on these vases vary considerably. On the earlier vases a short, thick-set, bearded type prevails, with powerful shoulders and thighs. On the later vases we see greater length of limb. The thinness of the sprinters is sometimes exaggerated to the point of emaciation. On the other hand, some of the long-distance runners, in spite of their length of limb, seem too heavy in build for the distance. They are of the type of the Apoxyomenos, who, though he might be excellent over 200 yards or quarter of a mile, is too heavy for a three-mile race. A peculiarity ascribed in our text-books to the Greek runner is the habit of encouraging himself to greater efforts by shouting as he ran, with all the strength of his lungs. The only evidence for so absurd and improbable a practice is a rhetorical passage in Cicero,[502] who can hardly be regarded as an authority on Greek athletics, even on those of his own day, when athletics were at their lowest ebb. Nor need we credit the statement that the Greeks raced in deep sand. Lucian, it is true, describes the youths in the gymnasium practising running in the sand as a severe form of exercise,[503] but the account preserved of the careful preparation of the stadium at Delphi proves that the racing track was something very different.