[1] His breeds of horses were famous the world over, and so was the number of his racing-chariots. No one else ever entered seven of these at the Olympic games—neither commoner nor king—but he alone. And his coming off first, second, and fourth victor (as Thucydides says;
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third, according to Euripides), transcends in the splendor of its renown all that ambition can aspire to in this field.
[2] The ode of Euripides
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to which I refer runs thus:—
Thee will I sing, O child of Cleinias;
A fair thing is victory, but fairest is what no other Hellene has achieved,
To run first, and second, and third in the contest of racing-chariots,
And to come off unwearied, and, wreathed with the olive of Zeus,
To furnish theme for herald’s proclamation.
Alcibiades. Plutarch. Bernadotte Perrin (Translator). Cambridge, MA. 1916.
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