OLY 
peal next to whom ftands Mercury, and next to Mer- 
cury Vefta; after Vefta is feen Cupid receiving Venus 
arifing out of the fea, and the goddefs Perfuafion placing 
Here are alfo the figures 
d on the 
been affifted in the yaar eee the colours, and p 
larly the drapery of this ftatue, by Panznus, a painter, 
his brother and fellow- kin ra any of whofe ae 
radi- 
db 
frame his = 
es of Homer 
« This faid, his kingly brow the Sire inclin’d, 
The large black curls fell, awful, from behind, 
hick fhadowing the ftern forehead of the god ; 
— trembled at th’ = nod.”? 
every where encompafled by column 
sai ig its length 230, and its beds 95. 
zibon, a native of this ere the roo 
aaa 
re) 
the temple, to which were say twenty-one gilt buck- 
lers, confecrated to Jupiter by Mummius, after the taking 
of Corint ithin and area the temple were innumerable 
a Fay and columns 
charged with trophies e ftatues were feveral of 
Parian marble, of which tae i been ereted in ho- 
nour of the emperor Adrian by the cities which compofed 
the ftat — a a, and others to Trajan by the whole 
Greek The city of Olympia was indebted to 
Trajan for en of its: embellifhments, particularly the 
baths, which bore his name, an amphitheatre, a_horfe- 
courfe, two ftadia‘in length, and a fenate-houfe for the 
Roman magiftrates, ceiled with bronze. 
lete had their ftatues at Olympia, feveral of which were 
executed by Phidias. For other particulars we refer to 
Paufanias, lib. v. 
YMPIAD, Orvupases, in Chronology, a {pace or period 
of four years; by which the Greeks reckoned their 
Hiftorians have faid that the Olympiad was infituted by 
Iphitus ; but it is certain, that the tetradteris, or period of 
four years, was almoft as old as the religions of Greece, 
being ufed in feveral of their facra, or religious feltivals. 
From Scaliger (Animadv, ad Euf. Chron. N° 1241.) we 
Jearn, that the Greeks, inquiring of the Delphic oracle 
concerning their folemn feafts and facrifices, received for 
sa pees that they would do well to facrifice xale ta qellea, 
iz, according to the cuftom of their fathers, and 
according to three things ; which laft words they interpreted 
to fignify days, months, and years. ‘They accordingly fat 
themfelves to regulate their years by the wae a their 
months-and days by the appearances of the m Thus 
they hoped to obferve their feftivals, and offer their facrifices 
upon the Sid days and the fame months in,the year; and 
OLY 
of 360 
days, two additional days, and their months of 30 
ys each, fon e of which, however, in the courfe of 
four Years they age a day 3 ; poe ae ee re tetraCteris 
ount 144, e month was 
the propcfe r. he great feftivals 
of the Greeks were folemnized every fifth year, after an 
interval of four complete year e. g. the panathenza at 
thens, and the Olympic games in Elis, which were cel 
brated ev fth year upon the of the moo 
» Scaliger’s tables it appears, that pic ne 
fell fometimes in the middle, or latter or of July, and eae 
imes in the beginning o Ig t feftival never 
which the eee placed 
always upon the oth of fake fo that the Olympic moon was 
the firft new moon after the fummer folftice. ‘This gave birth 
h occafioned the variation in the 
times of 49. The utility of the Olympiad as an eftablifhed 
ra in th reek chrono and hiftory is well known, 
and, indeed, soe ee triumphs with no {mall degree of 
exultation in the i magined fuccefs of his refearches with 
regard to this period. ‘ Hail,’ fays he, ‘ venerable 
Olympiad! thou guardian of dates and eras! Affertrix of 
. hiftorical truth, and curb of the fanatical licentioufnefs of 
‘chronologifts! &c. &c.’”? Neverthelefs, chronologers are far 
from being agreed about the precife time at which the 
Olympiads began; fome dating them from the victory of 
Corebus the Elean, and others throwing their original 13, 
and even 28 Olympiads farther backward. ‘This was done 
by artificial chronologers, who, in ie to accommodate 
the Olympiads to their fyftems and eae sne have added 
to their antiquity 112 years, as fir Ifaac Newton obferves, 
in his * Chronology.” ses paige meaning in all their 
computations, agree to reckon down pi bps that Olym- 
piad in which Corebus the pee s conqueror, the 
firft year of which was the 776th = bet meaning, according 
to Scaliger, July the 23d. See 
Rome was built, according to Varro, in the fourth year 
of the fixth Olympiad. 
The Peloponnefian war began May the 9th in the fecond 
year of the 87th Olympiad. Alexander the Great died 
April the 21ft, in the fecond year of the 114th; and Jefus 
Chrift was born in the fourth year of the 193d Olympiad, 
four years before the common era. 
‘The Olympiads were alfo called anni Iphii, from. Lphitus, 
who inftituted, or at leaft renewed, the sia of the 
Olympic games. 
We do no 
niece 0 i king Attalus 
and Alexander fhewed his ditspprobation of his fa 
3 E ase 
