Let us proceed to describe the character of these pastimes.

All gymnastic exercises in our state must have a military character; no other will be allowed.

Activity and quickness are most useful in war; and yet these qualities do not attain their greatest efficiency unless the competitors are armed.

The runner should enter the lists in armour, and in the races which our heralds proclaim, no prize is to be given except to armed warriors.

Let there be six courses--first, the stadium; secondly, the diaulos or double course; thirdly, the horse course; fourthly, the long course; fifthly, races (1) between heavy-armed soldiers who shall pass over sixty stadia and finish at a temple of Ares, and (2) between still more heavily-armed competitors who run over smoother ground; sixthly, a race for archers, who shall run over hill and dale a distance of a hundred stadia, and their goal shall be a temple of Apollo and Artemis.