The throw was measured from the front line of the balbis to the place where the diskos or spear fell, and it is obvious that the competitor might not overstep this line under penalty of disqualification.[578] In the gymnasia this line might be marked out temporarily by means of spears stuck in the ground on either side, or, as Dr. Pernice has suggested, by a line traced on the sand, though I cannot agree with his interpretation of certain vases on which he fancies the tracing of this line to be represented.[579] The place where the diskos fell was marked by a peg or arrow as described by Statius,[580] and on several vases we see a diskobolos in the act of putting down or taking up such a mark (Fig. 74). [Illustration: Fig. 74. (_a_) R.-f. kylix. Chiusi. (_b_) R.-f. kylix. Würzburg, 357, A.] In the modern “free style” the diskos is thrown from a circular area 2-1/2 metres in diameter, and the method of throwing is a modification of throwing the hammer, the thrower’s body making two or three complete turns. There is no trace in ancient times of such a method or of a circular area and, effective as it is, we may doubt if it would ever have been invented but for the experience acquired in hammer-throwing or in slinging weights. Throwing the diskos has acquired a practical interest of late years owing to the revival of this event in the modern Olympic Games. Unfortunately neither of the styles at present in vogue can be regarded as satisfactory from an archaeological standpoint. For our knowledge of the ancient method of throwing we depend almost entirely on the monuments. The scanty literary evidence has no independent value. Fortunately the monumental evidence is exceptionally rich and varied. The two statues—the Standing Diskobolos and Myron’s Diskobolos—are of first-rate importance, such works being independent of the accidents which affect the types in the lesser arts. Besides these we have a multitude of vases, bronzes, coins, and gems connected with this subject. Most of the schemes based upon this evidence are, however, more or less unsatisfactory, because the authors have failed to recognise two important factors.[581] In the first place, apparent divergence of type is often due not to a difference in motive but to artistic causes, to differences in material, or space, or to the age or style of the artists. Secondly, though the principle of the Greek throw appears to have been always the same, there can be no doubt that the styles of individual performers were as varied as the styles of modern golfers, and these differences of style were naturally reflected in art. Hence the absurdity of endeavouring, as so many writers have done, to force all the attitudes depicted on the vases into a single series of movements.