The herald., 1896-04-05
SOME ATHLETES At ATHENS
MODERN CHAMPIONS TO COMPETE WHERE
ANCIENT GLADIATORs STRUGGLED
The Stadium Restored-A Wonderful Struc-
ture Of Marble Which viii Seat so, 900
Spectators-Program Of the Games What
King George Has Done

Everything is in readiness for the
grand athletic carnival at Athens, at
which the Olympian games Of ancient
Greece will be equaled, If not sur
passed, by the gladiators of modern
times.
The stadium of centuries ago has
been rebuilt in the same spot that it
occupied when Rome was in it's infancy
and long before Julius Caesar was ever
thought of. Much of the marble used
in the ancient structure forms part
of the modern duplication. The resto-
ration is not recent achievement,
however, as for many years back it has
been a pet project with the men and
women who love to unfold to the world
the beauties of ancient Greece.
In 1878 his majesty, King George,
ordered the stadium excavated, and
paid all the expenses. The excava-
tions which mis- money carried on have
made possible the present revival of
the Olympian games, and have in the
meantime afforded pleasure and profit
to the visiting scholar to those classic
regions.
Under his majesty's direction the
debris of thousand years was cleared
away down to the surface of the arena
and the sloping amphithea ter laid bare.
The marble seats, whose construction
chad consumed the greater part of the
Pentelic quarry" were no longer there.
Most OF them had gone into the lime
kiln, that rapacious monster that has
devoured 90 much of the achievement
of ancient Greece.
His majesty found the bare amphi-
theater and the arena, the ruins of two
high supporting wallis at the entrance,
near the Illissus, and an underground
passage at the other end for the en-
| trance and exit of contestants and
judges. There we're also few broken
seats, and two or three others, scattered
about the city, showed what the re-
| mainder must have been like.
The arena as it stands today is as
much like the ancient one US human in
genuity and knowledge can make it.
Anastasios Metaxas, the kings archi-
teot. who has had charge of the work.
made thorough study of ancient
stadia, and there ia little doubt that he
has reproduced very faithful repre-
sentation Of the original stadium. The
arena is elliptical in shape, except that
the ellipse is cut square off at one end.
About this runs marble border, or
low wall, surmounted by an iron rail-
ing of antique design, on which perches
long line of owls, the sacred bird Of
Athens. just outside the border and
bounded by it comes an aisle eight feet
wide, and on lower level than the
arena. This aisle is bounded on the
other side by platform built of three
strata of marble. the lower stratum
ha
and the upper one white again, with
carvings.
At this platform begin the seats. and
from it they extend up and back all
around three sides of the ellipse, almost
to the top of the hill. At the twentieth
row is another aisle parallel with the
first, then more seats up to low wall,
called in Greek the crown. Outside of
all is high wall, surmounted by an
other railing. Inside this is the third
and last aisle.
On either side the opening the hill is
cut square down. Tho high walls in
front are the ancient ones repaired.
They are nearly triangular in shape,
slsnting down to follow the sloping
sides of the amphitheater. At the
lower end of each high column has
been erected, the one supporting
statue of Athena, the other of Victory.
The straight line across the entrance,
between the two columns, is adorned
with other images in marble-lions.
wrestlers, etc.-all reproductions from
antiquity, and in the corner stands
noble arch, under which the audience
will pass.
Ali of the seats to be used by the
aristocrats are of marble, while those
further back from the arena are of
wood. Plebeians, of course, will sit in
them just as they did 1000 or more
years ago.
The course in the stadium is
straight break, little over six hun
dred feet in length, beginning from
transverse line drawn at or near the
entrance. At the termination of this
distance another transverse line is
drawn for the finish. A semi-circular
portion of the stadium is thus left into
which the runners may dash. a ter hav-
ing crossed the goal at full speed. This
semi-circle is the sphendone.
The first row of seats, then, and
twenty more about the sphendone, are
of marble. All the others are of wood,
painted white, ana made to resemble
marble as much as possible. The sta
dium holds $4,000 people, and admis-s
sion will be free.