Philostratos says that the jump was the most difficult part of the pentathlon.[1534] It never existed as an independent competition despite its popularity in Greece. This popularity is attested by the frequency with which it is depicted on vases from the sixth century B. C. onward. Here the jumper is regularly shown with weights, and we can assume that many pentathlete statues were so represented, the sculptor ordinarily copying the kind of weight which was in use in his own age. While Philostratos in his day thought that the use of weights was merely to aid in exercise, Aristotle long before had rightly understood that the jumper could make a longer jump with than without them,[1535] a fact easily proved by the feats of modern jumpers. While the modern record for the running broad jump is 25 feet 3 inches,[1536] an English athlete jumped 29 feet 7 inches with the use of 5-pound weights,[1537] and a German officer in full uniform jumped 23 feet from a springboard.[1538] The recorded jumps of Phaÿllos at Delphi and of Chionis at Olympia, the former 55 feet and the latter 52, can not, however, be explained as ordinary broad jumps, even if we assume that the Greek jumper was far superior to the modern one. Such jumps would be impossible even with springboards or raised platforms, and we have no evidence that the Greeks used such devices. We might explain them on the theory of triple jumps[1539]—though the difficulty of such a solution is very great—or simply as mistakes in the records. Thus the record of Phaÿllos is found in a late epigram, in which this athlete is also said to have thrown the diskos 105 feet.[1540] That of Chionis is, to be sure, given by Africanus.[1541] But it is more than probable that νβʹ (52) of his record should read κβʹ (22), since the Armenian Latin text reads _duos et viginti cubitus_.[1542] Vase-paintings tell us how the _halteres_ were used.[1543] The jumper swung them forward and upward until they were level with or higher than the head; then he brought them down, bending the body forward until the hands were below the knees, the jump taking place on the return swing. We find the preliminary swing represented most commonly on the vases;[1544] we also see on them the top of the upward swing,[1545] the bottom of the downward swing,[1546] the jumper in midair,[1547] and the moment just before alighting.[1548] The act of landing is seen on an Etruscan wall-painting from a tomb at Chiusi.[1549] Running jumps are the ones most commonly depicted.[1550]