Luxury and Wealth in Sparta and The Peloponnese - (4. Kyniska Production and Use of Wealth)

4
KYNISKA:
PRODUCTION AND USE OF WEALTH
Annalisa Paradiso and James Roy
This article considers how Kyniska, the sister of King Agesilaos II

of Sparta, deployed and displayed her wealth in training and racing
chariot-horses, and the economic structures implied by such use of
wealth. The article is divided into two sections, the first by Annalisa
Paradiso, the second by James Roy. While the two authors are in general
agreement about the views expressed in the article as a whole, each has
full and complete responsibility for her or his own section.
1. The economic implications of Kyniska’s use of wealth (Annalisa

Paradiso)
We do not have much information about Kyniska. We know only that she
was the sister of Agesilaos II and the first woman to win the four-horse
chariot-race at the Olympic Games. She even won twice and the dates
proposed by Luigi Moretti (396 and 392 bc) are widely accepted, though
not certain.1 She may have been born around 440, when Agesilaos was
born.2 She was probably either not married or a widow at the time of
Copyright © 2022. Classical Press of Wales, The. All rights reserved.
her victories. Her father King Archidamos II, from the Eurypontid royal
house, was a very rich man. His grandfather Leotychidas II married twice.
From his first wife he had a son, Zeuxidamos, nicknamed Kyniskos.
The latter died, so Leotychidas married again with Eurydame, by whom
he had a daughter Lampito. Eurydame belonged to an important and
well-known family. Leotychidas had his grandchild Archidamos (the son
of Zeuxidamos) marry his own daughter Lampito (Herodotus 6.71). His
marriage policy aimed both to provide a spare heir for the dynasty and
not to disperse the family patrimony. Archidamos and Lampito, his wife
and half-aunt, were heirs to the properties both of Leotychidas and of his
two wives.3 Kyniska was the daughter of Archidamos, though her mother
was probably not Lampito, but Archidamos’ second wife Eupolia, who
was also the mother of Agesilaos.
In the light of such genealogical data, and if we suppose, with
Stephen Hodkinson, that women did inherit in Sparta, we must deduce
57
Luxury and Wealth in Sparta and the Peloponnese, edited by Chrysanthi Gallou, and Stephen Hodkinson, Classical Press of
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that Kyniska was one of the richest women in town. This is confirmed
indirectly by the way that Xenophon (Agesilaos 9.6) introduces her, when
he says that Agesilaos, himself a breeder of war-horses, persuaded her to
rear horses for chariot-racing (ἁρματοτροφεῖν: see Paradiso 2015 and Part
II by J. Roy) and compete in the four-horse chariot-race at the Olympic
Games. Xenophon presents the enterprise as expensive and Kyniska as
a woman who was, in the eyes of her brother, perfectly able to act by
herself. Plutarch modifies Xenophon’s account, relating that Agesilaos
persuaded Kyniska to compete in the Olympics, without mentioning
breeding racehorses, since he evidently thought that Kyniska would
already be a horsebreeder with a stable.4 According to both authors,
Agesilaos encouraged his sister to devote herself to racehorses, since
he aimed to show that such enterprises were due to wealth rather than
to ἀνδραγαθία (‘manly virtue’, Xenophon) or ἀρετή (‘excellence’, Plutarch).
Such an intended humiliation is not believable, since Kyniska took part in
two Olympiads, whereas a single participation would have been sufficient
to demonstrate Agesilaos’ proposition. Probably, Xenophon related an
off-the-record commentary by Agesilaos rather than his real advice
(Paradiso 2015). Kyniska may have been the ‘political agent’ of Agesilaos
in achieving a victory that granted her an international reputation, as Ellen
Millender supposes.5 Nevertheless, Kyniska could have taken the decision
herself, moved by her own interests and thanks to her wealth. That wealth
gave her the possibility of choosing how to use it, and even to showcase
it.6 Pausanias saw the epigram that she commissioned to be inscribed on
her thank-offering for her victory at Olympia, but he did not record it.
However, the epigram was fully recorded in the Anthologia Palatina and
the inscription itself also survives on the extant part of the monument’s
round base, though with two important gaps and some differences in
wording. In it, Kyniska proudly introduced herself as the only one, among
all women, to win the four-horse chariot-race.7 Accordingly, Pausanias
commented on that and her other dedications, by making allusion to
her φιλοτιμία (‘ambition’) and to both her priorities, as the first woman in
Greece to breed horses and win at the Olympic Games.8 She also offered
other dedications, for instance one at the Menelaion.9 Such data match
the image of a self-confident woman. Of course, that woman may have
acted both on her own and in full accord with her brother’s politics.
Kyniska’s fondness for chariot-racing and her wealth can serve as the
starting point for some interesting reflections. She was certainly the first
woman to break such records, but she was not the first Spartan royal to
take an interest in horse-breeding and chariot-racing, not even within the
Eurypontid royal house. According to Herodotus, King Damaratos was
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Kyniska: production and use of wealth
the only Spartan king to win the four-horse chariot-race, possibly at the
69th Olympiad (504 bc).10 Within the Eurypontid house, Damaratos was
the political and private enemy of Kyniska’s direct ancestor, Leotychidas.
He had married the latter’s fiancée after seizing her by capture, but was
subsequently deposed, with Leotychidas taking his throne.11 If Damaratos
was indeed a horse-breeder, all that would have been lost when he and
his family fled Sparta and went into exile in Persia. In the 390s his
descendants were living in Asia Minor.12 On the other hand, Pausanias
notes that during the fifth century other Spartans devoted themselves to
horse breeding, especially after the Persian Wars. In the eight Olympic
games in the years 448–420, seven Spartans are known to have won the
four-horse chariot-race.13
From an economic and sociological point of view, horse-breeding
for races (and not for war) is a matter of luxury, as being ‘unuseful’ and
done for show. It is very expensive, and many ancient sources on Sparta
introduce it this way. For Xenophon, Agesilaos thought that chariot-horse
races were a matter of wealth, πλοῦτος; for Plutarch, the king thought it
was, more specifically, a matter of expenditure, πλοῦτος καὶ δαπάνη. For
Isocrates, Archidamos III (the son of Agesilaos) criticised citizens who
bred teams of horses that devoured much money, ἀδηφαγούντων.14 It would
be interesting to have an inside look at the nature and origin of the wealth
such enterprises involved. Kyniska was ‘rich’, and that certainly means
that she had landed properties. However, her properties, and the helot
labour that farmed them, do not entirely account for the management
of two Olympic victories. In other words, a more articulated economic
model must have underpinned them, in a city where only iron money
allegedly circulated, but silver currency was also admitted and deposits of
precious metals were possibly preserved.15
Let us review what was needed for hippotrophia, starting with the
traditional structures of the Spartan economy. First, feeding horses was
exacting. To win twice, Kyniska must have bred and engaged more than
two teams in competitions, a fairly high number of horses, to assure
replacements in case of serious accidents. To feed them, rich land was
needed for pasture, and also for cultivation, since a huge amount of barley
would be devoted to horses, besides what was reserved for human food.
The best lands were possibly located in the Pamisos valley in Messenia.
In the same places, near the pasturelands, might also be located both the
stables and, possibly, a private hippodrome (see Part II).
Second, helot labour. Many tasks must have been accomplished by
helotic labour. One may think of the duties performed by the personnel
who took care of the organization, maintenance, and cleaning of both the
59

stables and the horses.16 Plato (Alc. 1.122d–e) reviews the wealth of the
Spartiates: their landed properties, slaves (andrapoda) and helots, horses
and cattle. His statement suggests that slaves and helots specifically cared
for horses and cattle (Blaineau 2015, 123). According to Pausanias, the
statues of two paidia were located at Olympia as part of the chariot-race
victory monument of the Spartan Polykles, who was depicted holding the
ribbon: one of the boys was holding a wheel, the other was asking for the
ribbon.17 If the two paidia were stable boys rather than Polykles’ children,
as Eckstein suggested, here might be a representation of helotic labour
in the field of chariot-racing.18 The people who tamed and/or trained the
horses and foals could also even have been helots. However, in Athens
horse-breakers, as opposed to grooms, were usually hired as free skilled
labour (Xenophon, On Horsemanship 2.2).
Third, chariots. Chariots were not imported as luxury items. It was
well-known that carriages and wagons were produced in Lakonike, by skilled
labour of course. Their manufacture was very ancient and already attested
at Bronze Age Pylos (Ventris and Chadwick 1956, 373–5). In the Odyssey
(4.587 ff.), when Telemachus visits Menelaus, the king offers him a chariot
and three horses as a gift. In the classical period, Xenophon mentions the
loading of military equipment on carts, and Theophrastus comments on
the type of timber used for the construction of Spartan wagons.19 Poseidon
Gaieochos was said ‘to rejoice over the chariots’ that competed in the
hippodrome near the sanctuary of the god at his festival near Therapne.20
When he visited Sparta, Themistokles was presented with an ochos, a vehicle,
just like Telemachus. Borimir Jordan has argued that it was neither a
baggage cart (hamaxa) nor a racing chariot (harma), thinking that the former
was an unsuitable gift and the latter too light for long-distance transport.
So, he supposed that the vehicle was a wicker kannathron, a beautifully
crafted carriage, since Herodotos, who relates the story, says that it was the
most beautiful in Sparta and Plutarch states that kannathra were lavishly
decorated with wooden shapes of griffins and goat-stags.21 Being so lavishly
decorated, kannathra could be expensive and the proof is that the daughter
of frugal Agesilaos personally used a politikon kannathron, a simple one,
befitting an ordinary citizen.22 Whatever Themistocles’ ochos may have
been, we can deduce from this story and the other testimonies that skilled
labour was available to manufacture vehicles at Sparta and elsewhere in
Lakonia and Messenia. The circuit of hippodromes in perioikic territory
(at Thouria, Thyreatis, and on the hill of Prophitis Ilias)23 allows us to
guess that urgent repair of chariots could be assured in the various places
where competitions were held. However, Kyniska surely counted on
personnel who worked for her, probably also helots.
60

Fourth, horse training and racing could be traumatic for horses.
Some skill in caring for the horses’ health would be required. The
earliest occurrence of the term hippiatros (‘farrier’) is late, in the second
century bc, and perhaps Simon of Athens, who wrote about horses in
the fifth century, never wrote the medical manual entitled Hippoiatrikos
that the Suda lexicon attributes to him.24 Xenophon (On Horsemanship 4.2)
reviewed the most useful criteria for examining horses, such as the criteria
for finding out their age, but he mentioned in passing only three problems
of health: surfeit of blood, exhaustion, and laminitis (inflammation of the
lamina of the hoof). Before him, Simon dealt with the main anatomic
features and behaviour of swift horses (i.e. racehorses), which were hence
the object of specific technical reflection.25 Aristotle knows in fact of
‘experts’ (ἔμπειροι) in horse matters, who evidently cared for the animals’
health as specialized personnel, even if they were not professional
horse-doctors.26 Once again, this is a form of skilled labour that could
have been of helot origin. Of course, the social origin of all the forms of
skilled labour I have reviewed could be challenged and attributed instead
to non-helotic labour (perioikic? foreign?), but this would have been
expensive.
Thus far, one can ascribe the management of Kyniska’s hippotrophia to
an economic nexus founded on land tenure and largely helotic skilled
labour. However, other aspects seem to involve, and even demand,
other forms of payment and access to a cash economy. First, the horses.
Damonon, a rich Spartan who won at several regional races but never
at the Olympic Games, nonetheless boasted of his horses, born from
his own mares and stallions. Thus, even if it was customary in Sparta to
lend and borrow horses,27 Kyniska possibly did not borrow a stallion for
her mares but owned them both. The Spartans knew different ‘races’ of
horses: Alcman, for instance, knows of Enetic, Colaxaean, and Ibenian
racehorses.28 In the later fifth century, either in 424 or in 440, a Spartan
victor in the Olympic four-horse chariot-race, Leon, proudly claims in
the inscription engraved on his victory monument at Olympia that he
won thanks to his Enetic horses (Λέων Λακεδαιμόνιος ἵπποισι νικῶν Ἐνέταις
Ἀντικλείδα πατήρ: ‘Leon Lakedaimonian winning with Enetic horses...’).29
Polemon of Ilion, who relates the inscription, adds that Leon was the
first to gain a success through an Enetic team; but such information,
not preserved in the inscription, may simply have been deduced from
the possibly unique mention, in dedications, of such horses.30 Unless we
suppose that a foreign ‘breed’ had been maintained in Sparta since the time
of Alcman, never being crossed in time with local ones, Leon’s singular
claim could have been justified by an innovation, a recent purchase of
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foreign Enetic horses (Hodkinson 2000, 313). Polemon too noticed that
the mention of such horses needed an explanation. If it happened, such
a purchase would have brought Sparta into an important commercial
circuit involving other Greek, and non-Greek, areas, such as the Adriatic
region or even Paphlagonia, the alleged original home-country of the
Enetic race (Blaineau 2015, 100 n. 264). That circuit required of course
access to a cash economy.
Second, after her exploits, Kyniska dedicated at Olympia two offerings
that Pausanias describes as two groups of statues. The first comprised a
chariot and its team of four horses, the charioteer, and Kyniska herself
(the first member of a royal family to be so portrayed): part of its round
base has been found.31 The second offering comprised a chariot and
bronze horses on a smaller scale.32 Both statue groups were made by
Apelleas, the son of Kallikles, who signed them. Apelleas was not a
Spartan, but from Megara, so Kyniska must have paid him, and twice.
Possibly, she paid the author of the epigram too, if he was a foreigner like
Simonides, who had composed the epigram for Pausanias the regent.33
One cannot realistically suppose any form of payment other than silver
(in coin or bullion) or even useful bronze. Note the nickname of Polykles
mentioned above, who gained victories in all four of the ‘Crown games’:
‘Polychalkos’, ‘rich in bronze’, with possible, and polysemic, allusion to
the number of his bronze victory statues, but also to his wealth, either
abstract (‘polychalkos’ is associated by Homer to ‘polychrysos’, ‘rich in
gold’) or concrete, in some form of bronze.34
Third, Kyniska would also have had cash at her disposal for other
necessities, linked to travel and the problems of transport, but above all
for the stay of the horses, chariots, and personnel from the stables, at
the places of competition. She must have sent the horses (and all they
needed) to Olympia some time (around a month?) before, to have them
accustomed to the hippodrome and to allow inspection by the Elean
officials who registered teams for the races. The horses were possibly
conveyed on carts, so as to avoid pre-competition inflammations of the
hooves or serious bone, joint, tendon or muscle injuries from walking on
the ancient roads of the Peloponnese.35 Both personnel and horses also
had to be fed. Theoretically, one could imagine the movement of carts of
barley and fodder from the owner’s estates. However, the most practical
scenario is that food and fodder were purchased at Olympia, where a
market certainly existed and flourished, since it provided goods for every
need. The same probably happened at the local Lakonian, and especially
perioikic, festivals where chariot-races or competitions involving horses
ridden by jockeys were held. If one considers the number of rich Spartans
62

involved in horse competitions, an enormous amount of cash must
have circulated. This confirms definitively that racing was founded on
a double economic nexus involving a cash economy alongside the more
static economy of the kleroi and helotic labour.
A last word may be added about Kyniska. If she did decide to begin
such an enterprise, clearly she did so out of interest and even a passion
for horsebreeding and competitions, and for fame and display. One
can suppose that she managed her stables through some intermediary
(a bailiff?) but was personally involved as well. ‘Intermediaries’ are listed
among the people who surrounded Agesistrata, the mother of Agis IV.36
It is conceivable that Kyniska paid regular visits to her horses and
controlled her property. That women managed their estate and its
economy may be true, all the more if they did inherit. Men were reportedly
involved in other activities: war, politics, common meals, hunting etc.
Women probably assured the necessary link between the oikos and the
family landholdings, supervising the arrival of the produce and its storage
at home. They were surely accustomed to economic management. Only
Kyniska did it on a larger scale and also for fun.
2. Kyniska’s racing stable (James Roy)

This text seeks to complement the arguments set out by Annalisa Paradiso
in the preceding text, and in her publication of 2015 on Kyniska, by
considering what was required to breed and train a four-horse chariot-team
(or -teams). Stephen Hodkinson’s discussion of the enthusiasm of wealthy
Spartans for horse-racing is well-known, and underlies all I have to say
here.37 I agree with Paradiso that the ancient texts strongly suggest that
Kyniska reared her horses, and in fact bred them, as she has already
argued elsewhere.38 Xenophon, for instance, draws a clear parallel
(Agesilaos 9.6) between Agesilaos’ rearing, and clearly breeding, many
war-horses and hunting-dogs and Kyniska’s ἁρματοτροφεῖν, i.e. rearing
horses for chariot-racing. Indeed, her repeated victories at Olympia (Paus.
6.1.6) show that she was committed over several years to maintaining
chariot-horses, and had equipped herself to do so. The point is important,
since on it depends how long and how obviously she displayed wealth by
successful chariot-racing.
A fragment of Polycrates, transmitted by Athenaeus,39 tells us that
Spartan girls ( parthenoi) travelled to the Hyakinthia in elaborately decorated
wicker carts (kannathra), but some paraded on two-horse chariots. The
text as transmitted contains, in the phrase about chariots, a reference to
competition (ἐφ’ ἁμίλλαις). Does this mean that the girls raced? Details
are obscure because that part of the text is clearly corrupt, and Kaibel,
63

in the Teubner edition of Athenaeus, suggested that a gloss referring to

competition had been imported into the text.40 In any case the text does
not make it clear that the girls drove their chariots, as opposed to riding
on them behind a charioteer. Nonetheless, Arrigoni recognises racing
cautiously as possibility, while Pomeroy boldly asserts that ‘some raced
in chariots drawn by a yoke of horses’. However Richer offers a detailed
description of the Hyakinthia, showing that the festival did not include
any kind of athletic or sporting contest.41 If the ritual parade described by
Polycrates of girls, some in kannathra and some in chariots, existed already
in the fifth century, then at Sparta there was at least a curious and very
public association of girls and racing-chariots. Then Kyniska’s interest in
chariot-racing took much further an interest that, at least in a mild way,
was encouraged in Spartan girls.
To assess what was needed to prepare a successful chariot-team
for Olympia an obvious question is how good the horses had to be.
Herodotus tells us (6.103.2-4) that both the Spartan Euagoras and the
Athenian Kimon won three times with the same team. Burford says of
Kimon: ‘if he had been a serious horse breeder, he should have been
able to enter other, younger horses too’,42 implying that younger horses
would have been better, and so that the standard of chariot-racing at the
Olympics could have been higher. Certainly, both Euagoras and Kimon
won in the sixth century,43 and standards might have risen later; but we
know of their teams precisely because they did win, and for their last
victory must have beaten younger horses. Moreover, studies of modern
racehorses show that they can race until about the age of twelve: more on
this later. Also the monetary value put on successful ancient teams shows
that they were highly prized. Much of the available information is related
to Alkibiades’ entry of seven teams in 416, and Gribble uses that evidence
to suggest an approximate value of five talents per team.44 We also know
that a penalty imposed at Olympia included two horses, presumably a
racing pair, valued at two talents (and their gear valued at thirty minai):45
since it would be easier to match a pair than to create a team of four,
the pair might well be relatively somewhat cheaper, though still costly.
Thus a good team was greatly valued, and Olympic racing standards were
probably as high as they could be.
There was an element of chance in the outcome of chariot-races,
because crashes and other accidents were not uncommon. It is not clear
how many teams competed in an Olympic four-horse chariot-race, and
estimates have gone as high as sixty.46 These numbers seem incredible,
but, since Alkibiades in 416 and Dionysios I of Syracuse in 388 (D.S.
14.109.1–4) were allowed to enter multiple teams, the number admitted
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to the race was presumably not small, and there is no evidence that heats
were run to reduce the number of teams.47 Also, Pindar (Pythian 5.43–53)
wrote of Arkesilas of Kyrene defeating forty other competitors at the
Pythia, though the figure has been questioned.48 In any case, accidents
were certainly frequent,49 and no doubt sometimes prevented a good
team from winning. Also, starting positions, which must have affected
chances of success, were probably decided by lot.50 On the other hand,
the multiple wins by some competitors, including Kyniska, show that the
outcome of the chariot-race was not due simply to chance. In any case,
anyone rearing a chariot-team, or -teams, had to plan rationally, training
the horses to perform at their best.
On horse-breeding in ancient Greece we now have the work of Blaineau
(2015). His main concern is the war-horse, but he covers hippotrophia
generally. In an extended discussion (pp. 143–68) he questions whether
it is legitimate to speak of ‘races’ (in a genetic sense) of horses in ancient
Greece, but shows that there was a clear belief that it was possible to
breed selectively for desired qualities, probably relying especially on
the sire. Then, drawing heavily on Xenophon, he shows that selective
breeding had to be matched by training.51 Throughout his book Blaineau
takes it for granted that the war-horses in which he is primarily interested
were distinct from racehorses (including chariot-horses). He examines
in detail the evidence for that distinction, drawing on literary texts,
artistic representations (which, he acknowledges, may be unreliable),
and the different physical characteristics required in war-horses and
in racehorses.52 The same distinction is clear in Xenophon Agesilaos
9.6:53 Agesilaos kept many hounds for hunting and war-horses, but
persuaded Kyniska to breed chariot-horses. Even if Xenophon’s anecdote

is historically imprecise, he clearly distinguished war-horses and
racehorses.54 Kyniska’s chariot-horses were not simply a by-product of
Agesilaos’ stable of war-horses.
There are no statistics on the careers of horses in ancient chariot-racing,
but ancient views of how a horse developed over its lifetime are known.
They are gathered by Blaineau (2015, 246–7), drawing especially on the
views of Simon, whose work on horses, written probably in the fifth
century, survives in fragments.55 The horse began to lose its milk-teeth
around the age of two and a half years, and had lost them all by roughly
four and a half. It then became fully mature physically at about six. At
the Olympic Games a chariot-race for teams of four foals was introduced
in 384; this is recorded by Pausanias (5.8.10), but also on an Athenian
inscription which gives an important list of the dates at which Olympic
events were introduced. The inscription specifies (as Pausanias does not)
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that the chariot-race for foals was for pôloi aboloi, i.e. foals that had not yet
lost their milk-teeth. According to Pausanias (6.2.1-2), a Spartan called
Lykinos once tried to enter a team for this race but one of his horses
was not accepted: he then entered his team for the main chariot-race,
and won.56 There are problems with Pausanias’ account of Lykinos,
discussed by Stephen Hodkinson, who accepts Pausanias’ report.57 If that
is right, Lykinos’ horses will have been less than four-and-a half years
old. Nonetheless, even four-year-olds are much less mature than five- or
six-year-olds, and if Lykinos did indeed win the four-horse chariot-race
with such young horses, they must have been an exceptional team:
such a victory is in fact much more surprising than victory by ten- or
eleven-year-olds.
For comparison there are various studies of modern racehorses, though
obviously not of chariot-teams. A study of American thoroughbred
racehorses (Gramm and Marksteiner 2010) showed that they race from
the age of two to nine or more: one horse raced at the age of 12.4 years.
Performance improved rapidly until the age of four and a half, and
then declined much more slowly as the horse aged. A study of horses
up to the age of eight or nine running in races organised by the Japan
Racing Association (Takahashi 2015) also found that speed improved
until age four and a half, but noticed no significant decline thereafter;
it was speculated that the apparent lack of decline was due to decreases
in the weight carried and the retirement of less successful horses. The
careers of thoroughbreds racing in Hong Kong showed that some began
racing at age two, and their subsequent careers did not suffer from this
early start.58 The longest career, calculated from the first race, was 92.58
months; however, in Hong Kong racehorses are required to retire at age

eleven. Among thoroughbreds racing in Australia career-lengths from
the first race of up to 11.47 years were recorded, although most were
much shorter.59 These various studies show that modern racehorses can
compete from age two, and in some cases, admittedly a small minority,
continue to ages eleven, twelve, or thirteen.
The horses examined in these studies were running in flat races.
However, in article on an ancient racehorse called Pherenikos, Henderson
(2011) included a breakdown of the ages of winners between 1950 and
2011 of the Grand National (a famous English steeplechase): more than
half were nine or more years old, and nine horses were twelve. Skill in
jumping fences may have compensated for advancing age. Similarly
Miller (1978, 152 n. 18) quoted comments made to him by J. K. Anderson:
I have benefitted from discussion with J. K. Anderson who assures me
that a successful career of even fourteen years, although very long, is
66

not beyond the realm of possibility. He also reminds me that the Greek
hippodrome, with its single turning-post at either end, will have placed
demands upon skill and experience in negotiating the turns, as well as
upon speed. A simple comparison between a modern flat track racehorse
and an ancient horse is not valid.
Anderson’s point is very important: in a successful four-horse chariot-team
skill and experience could compensate for increasing age.
This point can be expanded. Racing in an ancient hippodrome required
a combination of speed on the straight and a tight turn round the end-post.
Each horse had a different role in the turn, the outside horse travelling
much farther than the innermost, and these four different roles had to be
coordinated to allow the chariot to lose as little time as possible.60 The
longer a well-trained team could continue as a team, the greater would be
its experience and skill.
To breed racehorses Kyniska must have acquired suitable mares, and
possibly also one or more stallions, unless she bred from the stallions of
others. Her stable must have been large enough to allow selection among
the foals, both for speed and endurance and to match others in a team. If
a breeder had enough suitable horses, it would have been advantageous
to form a team with horses of roughly the same age, since they could
then continue as a team throughout their racing career. It would also be
advisable to prepare replacement horses in case any horse suffered injury
or illness. To have a reasonable chance of winning at Olympia, the horses
would need to be at least about three years old, and, since a mare carries
her foal for eleven months, they would need to be conceived at latest
around the time of the previous Games. If Kyniska bred her horses, she
must have begun at the latest four years before her first victory, and that
would assume that her very first foals produced a team of Olympic victors:
a longer period before her victory is much more likely. If the first victory
did indeed fall in 396, then Kyniska was probably breeding already during
the reign of her half-brother, Agis II, Agesilaos’ predecessor (Paradiso
2015, 239).
A team would need to be trained to race as a team among competing
teams. That would require a hippodrome, or a comparable track. There
were several hippodromes in Lakonia and Messenia,61 but it might have
been impractical to use them for training. Evidence from elsewhere about
work to make hippodromes ready for festivals suggests that they were
not always kept permanently fit for racing, and some at least were rented
out for pasture between festivals (Mathé 2010): moreover, unless the
hippodrome happened to be very near the horse-breeder’s estate, there
would have been the problem of moving the horses frequently. Therefore,
67

Kyniska may well have created a race-track on her estate, with costs in
construction and maintenance, even if helot labour was used, since land
and labour would be diverted from agricultural production. Then to train
her horses to compete she would have needed several teams.
In any case, it would have been desirable to give the horses the
experience of real competition as soon as they were fit to take part, and
that would have meant showing them in public. The numerous races in
Lakonia and Messenia listed on the Damonon stele show that a Spartan
owner could launch a team in real competition in local events, and
Kyniska presumably did so. That would make her racing stable very well
known among Spartans. Pomeroy points out (2002, 23) that the anecdote,
in Xenophon and Plutarch, that Agesilaos encouraged Kyniska to race at
Olympia ‘suggests that he thought his sister’s horses had a good chance to
win’: the point is well taken, and implies that Kyniska’s horses had shown
what they were capable of. Clearly, Kyniska won at Olympia at her first
attempt, and we can safely assume that she had not previously competed
at any other of the great panhellenic festivals, but her horses could have
raced in Lakonia and Messenia.
Kyniska could pursue her interest because she possessed and controlled
great wealth. When she won at Olympia, the whole Greek world saw
some of her wealth on the race-track, and knew that much more had
been expended in preparation. Among Spartans, however, her display
of wealth would have begun long before, and it continued for at least
four more years. And behind her wealth on public display lay the wealth
carefully managed and employed over several years to maintain a racing
stable. Though Kyniska would be able to employ suitable staff to run
both her estates and her racing stable, there is no reason to doubt that
she took a strong personal interest in this range of activity. And, even
if her wealth was derived from land and helot labour, she acquired, in
negotiable form, the resources needed to purchase in Lakonia and beyond
not only equipment and supplies but the memorials of her success that
were famous throughout the Greek world.
68

Abbreviations
BNJ = Brill’s New Jacoby (https://scholarlyeditions.brill.com/bnjo/), Leiden, 2007–.
FGE = D.L. Page (ed.) Further Greek Epigrams, Cambridge, 1981.
FGrH = F. Jacoby, Die Fragmente der griechischen Historiker, Berlin, 1923–.
IG = Inscriptiones Graecae, Berlin, 1873–.
IvO = W. Dittenberger and K. Purgold (eds) Inschriften von Olympia, Berlin, 1896.
PMG = D.L. Page (ed.) Poetae Melici Graeci, Oxford, 1962.
Notes
1
Pausanias 3.8.1; 3.15.1; 5.12.5; 6.1.6; Moretti 1957, nos. 373 and 381.
2
Moretti 1953, 41, 43.
3
Hodkinson 2000, 65–112, esp. 94–104.
4
Plutarch, Agesilaos 20.1: cf. Apophthegmata Laconica (Agesilaos 49) 212b.
5
Millender 2009, 25; 2018; 2019. Cf. Kyle 2003.
6
On both τιμή (‘honour’) and δύναμις (‘power’) provided for women through
wealth, cf. Plutarch, Agis 7.6. In Euripides’ Andromache, Hermione is given freedom
of speech and power at home through her possessions (ll.147–53 and 940): see Ellen
Millender’s analysis in this volume (Chapter 6) of Euripides’ portrayal of Hermione
as evidence (presented in a critical manner) of female wealth in Sparta.
7
Anthologia Palatina 13.16; cf. IvO 160 = IG V 1, 1564a = Moretti 1953, no. 17.
8
Pausanias 3.8.1–2; 6.1.6.
9
IG V 1, 235; cf. IG V 1, 1567.
10
Herodotus 6.70.3, with Moretti 1957, no. 157.
11
Herodotus 6.65; 6.67; 6.70.2.
12
Xenophon, Hell.3.1.6; Anab. 2.1.3; 7.8.17; Pausanias 3.7.8; Plutarch, Apophthegmata
Laconica (Leotychidas 1) 224D; Sextus Empiricus, Adversus Mathematicos 1.258.
13
Pausanias 6.2.1. Cf. Moretti 1957, nos. 305, 311, 315, 324, 327, 332, and 339.
14
Xenophon, Agesilaos 9.6; Plutarch, Agesilaos 20.1; Isocrates, Arch. 55. See also
Aristophanes, Clouds 12–74 and Xenophon, Hell. 6.4.11, with Hodkinson 2000,
303–33; Thommen 2014, 129–33.

15
Xenophon, Constitution of the Lacedaemonians 7.5; Plutarch, Lycurgus 9. Cf.
Hodkinson 2000, 151–86. For further discussion, see Alain Bresson’s paper in this
volume, Chapter 5.
16
This personnel has been listed by Fornis 2014, 313.
17
Pausanias 6.1.7, with Moretti 1957, no. 315: 85th Olympiad = 440 bc.
18
Meyer and Eckstein 1987, 265.
19
Xenophon, Constitution of the Lacedaemonians 11.2; Theophrastus, History of Plants
3.16.3.
20
Hesychius γ 50 Latte, s.v. γαιήοχος.
21
Jordan 1988, 565–9: cf. Herodotus 8.124; Plutarch, Agesilaos 19.8.
22
Xenophon, Agesilaos 8.7; Plutarch, Agesilaos 19.7. On young Spartan women
being carried in kannathra or processing in two-horse (racing?) chariots at the
Hyakinthia, cf. Polycrates FGrH/BNJ 588 F 1 (= Athenaeus 4.139 f), discussed
more fully in Section 2.
23
Victories at four-horse chariot-races or through the κέλης, the horse ridden by
a jockey, in Lakonia are listed by Damonon in his stele: cf. IG V.1. 213 = Moretti
69

1953, no. 16, with the commentary of Nafissi 2013, 130–2 and also Christesen
2019, who identifies references to the kalpe, a contest for mares in which the rider
dismounted and ran alongside his cavalry-horse. For an English translation based
on Christesen’s interpretation, Cooley 2017, C83 (pp. 85–6).
24
McCabe 2007, 277: Suda τ 987.
25
Simon, fr. 4 Ruehl = Pollux 1.194: εὔδρομος ὁ ἵππος ὁ ὀλίγον αἴρων ἀπὸ τῆς γῆς
ἐν τῷ τρέχειν τὰ σκέλη (‘the horse that, while running, raises its legs moderately from
the ground is swift’).
26
History of Animals VII (VIII) 604b26.
27
Xenophon, Constitution of the Lacedaemonians 6.3.
28
Alcman, Parth., PMG 1, 54 ff. On ‘races’, note however the doubts of Blaineau
2015, 143–68.
29
The last two words of the Greek would mean ‘father of Antikleidas’, a very
strange phrase in this context, but the reference to Enetic horses seems secure. On
the possible emendations of Ἀντικλείδα πατήρ, cf. Whitehead 1979.
30
Polemon, fr. 22 Mueller/19 Preller: scholion to Euripides, Hippolytus 230. Cf.
Moretti 1957, no. 332.
31
Pausanias 6.1.6; IvO 160. The second one to be portrayed was Archidamos III,
the nephew of Kyniska: Christien 2009.
32
Pausanias 5.12.5; IvO 634.
33
Simonides, FGE 17a. Hodkinson 2000, 322–3.
34
Pausanias 6.1.7; Iliad 10.315. Moretti 1957, no. 315.
35
Greek horses had no horseshoes: on hooves worn down by long marches,
cf. Diodorus 17.94.2; Quintus Curtius 8.2.33–4; Appian, Mithridatika 325. On the
danger to hooves from damp and slippery surfaces, with the recommendation
that the latter be paved with stones to harden the horses’s feet, cf. Xenophon,
On Horsemanship 4.3. A horse is represented walking on ground strewn with round
stones on a fragmentary Late Geometric Argive krater, ca. 750–730 bc (Moore 2004,
50 and fig. 29). Evidently, ancient roads involved dangerous walking conditions.
36
Plutarch, Agis 6.7, termed pelatai, philoi, and chreostai.
37
Hodkinson 2000, 335–68: cf. Hodkinson 2004, especially 111–12.
38
Paradiso (2015, 237–8) argues that Kyniska will have been breeding horses
well before her first success at Olympia. On this point I might seem to differ from
Stephen Hodkinson, but in fact do not: he argued (2000, 313, with n. 26 on p. 331)
that Kyniska probably acquired a mature team, but later wrote of Kyniska’s breeding
horses (2004, 111), and confirmed in discussion at the conference in Nottingham
that he accepts that Kyniska may have bred horses.
39
Polycrates FGrH/BNJ 588 fr.1 = Athenaeus Deip. 4.139F.
40
Kaibel 1887 ad loc. Vannini 2020 argues that the words referring to girls on
chariots are a gloss interpolated in the text of Athenaeus, and that ἁμίλλαις is a
corruption of ἁμίππων (‘two-horsed’), i.e. that the gloss said that girls rode to the
festival on two-horse chariots but with no reference to racing.
41
Arrigoni 1985, 94; Pomeroy 2002, 20 n. 69. Raschke (1994) considered the
possibility that the female figures shown driving three-horse chariots on an Athenian
red-figure kylix of the later fifth century were Spartan girls, but concluded that
they were more probably not human but Nikai: Neils (2012, 158–61) nevertheless
argued that these figures are further evidence for chariot–racing by Spartan girls.
70

In discussions of the Hyakinthia, Pettersson (1992, 10) supposes without discussion
that girls took part in horse-races. Richer (2012, 343–82) analyses the Hyakinthia,
with (357–61) details of the programme of the festival.
42
Burford 1993, 74, cf. Hodkinson 2000, 313.
43
Moretti 1957 dates Euagoras’ victories to 548, 544, and 540 (Moretti nos. 110,
113, 117, accepted by Hodkinson 2000, 313), and those of Kimon to 536, 532, and
528 (Moretti nos. 120, 124, 127).
44
Gribble 2012, especially 56. Cf. Davies (1981, 99–101) on the cost of chariot–
racing to Athenian owners.
45
Minon 2007 no. 19, c.475–450 bc = IvO 13.
46
As noted by Lee 2001, 38. For overviews of the problem, Crowther 1993, 46–8
= 2004, 177–9 and Jacquemin 2002, 257–8; note the doubts of Canali De Rossi (2011,
26) about the possibility of a high number. While there is archaeological evidence
for the starting-system (hysplex) used for foot-races (Valavanis 1999; Rieger 2004;
Dimde 2016), there is no such evidence for a hysplex in a hippodrome in Greece:
investigation of the only hippodrome identified and investigated archaeologically,
on Mt. Lykaion in Arkadia, has so far revealed nothing about how races were started
(Romano and Voyatzis 2015, 245–58).
47
On heats in other events, Crowther 1992, 68–74 = 2004, 215–21. Running
heats for the chariot-races would have been very demanding for the horses, and
damaging for the surface of the hippodrome, besides taking up a considerable time
(on the programme of events, Lee 2001).
48
Ebert (1989, 97–8) found the figure of 40 incredible, and suggested that it
might be due to textual corruption.
49
Crowther 1994, 121–33 = 2004, 229–40. He notes (1994, 122 = 2004, 230) that
[Andocides] Against Alcibiades 26 expresses the view that most equestrian events
were decided by chance, but that some editors emend the text and eliminate the
reference to chance.
50
On the drawing of lots, attested for other events, Ajootian 2007.
51
Blaineau 2015, 157–66; also 263–9 on ‘dressage’.
52
On the distinction between war-horses and racehorses e.g. Blaineau 2015, 36
‘les chevaux de course’, and Index général p. 333 ‘course (cheval de)’. Blaineau (29–52)
examines the physical characteristics of ancient Greek horses, arguing that racehorses
would be bigger. Willekes 2019 adds some points on the breeding of ancient racehorses.
53
So Hodkinson 2000, 312, 331 n. 25.
54
Xenophon in his equestrian treatises (Hipp. 3.7, 8.1; Cav. Comm. 1.5, 1.18, 8.2–3)
mentions training needed for war-horses such as jumping ditches, leaping over
walls, rushing up banks, jumping down from banks and galloping down slopes:
such training was not suitable for racehorses.
55
Simon was known to Xenophon (e.g. Hipp. 1.1.3). Simon fr. 4 Ruehl refers
specifically to racehorses.
56
We know from Pausanias (5.24.10) that there were at Olympia judges who
assessed the horses that competitors wished to enter for the foals’ race, but oddly
they did not disclose their reasons for any decision. No doubt the decision on whether
a horse was still a foal depended mainly, or entirely, on the state of its milk-teeth.
57
Hodkinson 2000, 308, with n. 15 on p. 330.
58
Velie, Stewart, Lam, Wade, and Hamilton 2013.
71

59
Velie, Wade, and Hamilton 2013.
60
On the horses’ different roles, Pierros 2003, 351–6.
61
As the Damonon stele shows: IG V 1.213; see Nafissi 2013. English translation
in Cooley 2017, C83 (pp. 85–6).
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Luxury and Wealth in Sparta and The Peloponnese - (4. Kyniska Production and Use of Wealth)

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4

Annalisa Paradiso and James Roy

This article considers how Kyniska, the sister of King Agesilaos II

1. The economic implications of Kyniska’s use of wealth (Annalisa

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2. Kyniska’s racing stable (James Roy)

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in the Teubner edition of Athenaeus, suggested that a gloss referring to

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persuaded Kyniska to breed chariot-horses. Even if Xenophon’s anecdote

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months; however, in Hong Kong racehorses are required to retire at age

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303–33; Thommen 2014, 129–33.

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1993 ‘Numbers of contestants in Greek athletic contests’, Nikephoros 6, 39–52

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