134 HORSE-BACK RIDING. 



of olives and their masters wore it. Philip of Mace- 

 don was proclaimed victor at the Olympic game at 

 the very time he was besieging Potidaea. Plutarch 

 relates that this prince, favored of fortune, received 

 on the same day three pieces of intelligence each 

 more joyful than the last : first, that a son had been 

 born to him ; secondly, that his general, Parmenio, 

 had defeated the lUyrians ; and, thirdly, that he had 

 won a crown of olive at Olympus. 



And now it remains to say a word or two concern- 

 ing this recompense, that, despite its apparent insig- 

 nificance, was deemed a fitting reward for the most 

 marvellous achievements in contests so perilous. 



And to begin with, Ave must admit that he who 

 first said, ** Opinion governs the world," spoke not 

 without reason. Who could believe, were not the 

 fact too well attested for doubt, that in the hope of 

 being privileged to wear a wreath of olive leaves, a 

 whole nation would devote itself to the practice of 

 exercises in the highest degree painful and hazard- 

 ous ? But, on the other hand, the Greeks, by a wise 

 policy, had attached such honor and distinction to 

 the obtaining of this Crown, that it is not surprising a 

 people whose ruling passion was the love of glory 

 believed they could not pay too dearly for this which 

 of all honors was the most flattering. 



It is no exaggeration when Cicero declares in his 

 Epistles from Tusculum, that, in the estimation of the 

 Greeks, this olive crown was equal in value to a con- 



