[376] Strabo, ix. p. 421; Pausan. x. 7, 3. The first Pythian games celebrated by the Amphiktyons, after the Sacred War, carried with them a substantial reward to the victor (an ἀγὼν χρηματίτης); but in the next, or second Pythian games, nothing was given but an honorary reward, or wreath of laurel leaves (ἀγὼν στεφανίτης): the first coincide with Olympiad 48, 3; the second with Olympiad 49, 3. Compare Schol. ad Pindar. Pyth. Argument.: Pausan. x. 37, 4-5; Krause, Die Pythien, Nemeen, und Isthmien, sect. 3, 4, 5. The Homeric Hymn to Apollo is composed at a time earlier than the Sacred War, when Krissa is flourishing; earlier than the Pythian games, as celebrated by the Amphiktyons. The Olympic games, more conspicuous than the Pythian, as well as considerably older, are also remarkable on another ground, inasmuch as they supplied historical computers with the oldest backward record of continuous time. It was in the year 776 B. C., that the Eleians inscribed the name of their countryman, Korœbus, as victor in the competition of runners, and that they began the practice of inscribing in like manner, in each Olympic, or fifth recurring year, the name of the runner who won the prize. Even for a long time after this, however, the Olympic games seem to have remained a local festival; the prize being uniformly carried off, at the first twelve Olympiads, by some competitor either of Elis or its immediate neighborhood. The Nemean and Isthmian games did not become notorious or frequented until later even than the Pythian. Solôn,[377] in his legislation, proclaimed the large reward of five hundred drachms for every Athenian who gained an Olympic prize, and the lower sum of one hundred drachms for an Isthmiac prize. He counts the former, as Pan-Hellenic rank and renown, an ornament even to the city of which the victor was a member,—the latter, as partial, and confined to the neighborhood. [377] Plutarch, Solôn, 23. The Isthmian Agon was to a certain extent a festival of old Athenian origin; for among the many legends respecting its first institution, one of the most notorious represented it as having been founded by Theseus after his victory over Sinis at the Isthmus (see Schol. ad Pindar. Isth. Argument.; Pausan. ii. 1, 4), or over Skeirôn (Plutarch, Theseus, c. 25). Plutarch says that they were first established by Theseus as funeral games for Skeirôn, and Pliny gives the same story (H. N. vii. 57). According to Hellanikus, the Athenian Theôrs at the Isthmian games had a privileged place, (Plutarch, _l. c._).