580), the whole management of the games, and the choice of the judges, were monopolized by the Eleans.
Previous to each festival, officers, deputed by the Eleans, proclaimed a sacred truce.

Whatever hostilities were existent in Greece, terminated for the time; sufficient interval was allowed to attend and to return from the games.

[109] During this period the sacred territory of Elis was regarded as under the protection of the gods--none might traverse it armed.

The Eleans arrogated indeed the right of a constant sanctity to perpetual peace; and the right, though sometimes invaded, seems generally to have been conceded.

The people of this territory became, as it were, the guardians of a sanctuary; they interfered little in the turbulent commotions of the rest of Greece; they did not fortify their capital; and, the wealthiest people of the Peloponnesus, they enjoyed their opulence in tranquillity;--their holy character contenting their ambition.