In the simple race the extent of the Stadium was run but once, at the end of which the prize attended the victor, that is, he who came in first. In the race called Δίαυλος, the competitors ran twice that length; that is, after having arrived at the goal, they returned to the barrier. To these may be added a third sort, called Δολιχὸς, which was the longest of all, as its name implies, and was composed of several Diauli. Sometimes it consisted of twenty-four Stadia backwards and forwards, turning twelve times round the goal. There were some runners in ancient times, as well among the Greeks as Romans, who have been much celebrated for their swiftness. Pliny tells us,(135) that it was thought prodigious in Phidippides to run eleven hundred and forty Stadia(136) between Athens and Lacedæmon in the space of two days, till Anystis of the latter place, and Philonides, the runner of Alexander the Great, went twelve hundred Stadia(137) in one day, from Sicyon to Elis. These runners were denominated ἡμεροδρόμους as we find in that passage of Herodotus, which mentions Phidippides.(138) In the consulate of Fonteius and Vipsanus, in the reign of Nero, a boy of nine years old ran seventy-five thousand paces(139) between noon and night. Pliny adds, that in his time there were runners, who ran one hundred and sixty thousand paces(140) in the circus. Our wonder at such a prodigious speed will increase, (continues he,)(141) if we reflect, that when Tiberius went to Germany to his brother Drusius, then at the point of death, he could not arrive there in less than four-and-twenty hours, though the distance was but two hundred thousand paces,(142) and he changed his carriage three times,(143) and went with the utmost diligence. 2. Of the Horse-races. The race of a single horse with a rider was less celebrated among the ancients, yet it had its favourers amongst the most considerable persons, and even kings themselves, and was attended with uncommon glory to the victor. Pindar, in his first ode, celebrates a victory of this kind, obtained by Hiero, king of Syracuse, to whom he gives the title of Κέλης, that is, “Victor in the horse-race;” which name was given to the horses carrying only a single rider, Κέλητες. Sometimes the rider led another horse by the bridle, and then the horses were called _Desultorii_, and their riders _Desultores_; because, after a number of turns in the Stadium, they changed horses, by dexterously vaulting from one to the other. A surprising address was necessary upon this occasion, especially in an age unacquainted with the use of stirrups, and when the horses had no saddles, which made the leap still more difficult. Among the African troops there were also cavalry,(144) called _Desultores_, who vaulted from one horse to another, as occasion required; and these were generally Numidians. 3. Of the Chariot-races.