When he had arranged these things with them he went to the Isthmian games, and, the stadium being full of people, he commanded silence by trumpet and directed the herald to make this proclamation, "The Roman people and Senate, and Flamininus, their general, having vanquished the Macedonians and Philip, their king, order that Greece shall be free from foreign garrisons, not subject to tribute, and shall live under her own customs and laws."
Thereupon there was great shouting and rejoicing and a scene of rapturous tumult; and groups here and there called the herald back in order that he might repeat his words for them. They threw crowns and fillets upon the general and voted statues for him in their cities. They sent ambassadors with golden crowns to the Capitol at Rome to express their gratitude, and inscribed themselves as allies of the Roman people. Such was the end of the second war between the Romans and Philip.[17]
Apollodorus, Library3.4.3; Pausanias, Description of Greece2.1.3, 1.44.8. It is likely that Pindar already described this version of the origin of the games (in a fragment of the Isthian odes). For more information, see E.R. Gebhard & M.W. Dickie, Melikertes-Palaimon, Hero of the Isthmian Games.
According to Solinus, the Isthmian Games were constituted in the 49th Olympiad (Solinus, Wonders of the World7.14). The 49th Olympiad began in 584 BC. The Olympic Games took place in July/August; the Isthmian Games in April/May of the second year of the Olympiad. The second year of the 49th Olympiad was from July/August 583 to July/August 582 BC. The date 582 BC is accepted by historically-derived documents, for instance, Der neue Pauly (under Isthmia).
“At the Isthmus the pine, and at Nemea celery became the prize to commemorate the sufferings of Palaemon and Archemorus.” (Pausanias, Description of Greece8.48.2).
“As he was marching up an ascent, from the top of which they expected to have a view of the army and of the strength of the enemy, there met him by chance a train of mules loaded with parsley; which his soldiers conceived to be an ominous occurrence or ill-boding token, because this is the herb with which we not unfrequently adorn the sepulchres of the dead; and there is a proverb derived from the custom, used of one who is dangerously sick, that he has need of nothing but parsley. So to ease their minds, and free them from any superstitious thoughts or forebodings of evil, Timoleon halted, and concluded an address suitable to the occasion, by saying, that a garland of triumph was here luckily brought them, and had fallen into their hands of its own accord, as an anticipation of victory: the same with which the Corinthians crown the victors in the Isthmian games, accounting chaplets of parsley the sacred wreath proper to their country; parsley being at that time still the emblem of victory at the Isthmian, as it is now at the Nemean sports; and it is not so very long ago that the pine first began to be used in its place.” “26.
(1.) Ἀναβαίνοντι δ’ αὐτῷ πρὸς λόφον, ὃν ὑπερβαλόντες ἔμελλον κατ‑
όψεσθαι τὸ στράτευμα καὶ τὴν δύναμιν τῶν πολεμίων, ἐμβάλλουσιν ἡμίονοι
(2.) σέλινα κομίζοντες, καὶ τοῖς στρατιώταις εἰσῆλθε πονηρὸν εἶναι τὸ ση‑
μεῖον, ὅτι τὰ μνήματα τῶν νεκρῶν εἰώθαμεν ἐπιεικῶς στεφανοῦν σελί‑
νοις· καὶ παροιμία τις ἐκ τούτου γέγονε, τὸν ἐπισφαλῶς νοσοῦντα δεῖσθαι
(3.) [τοῦτον] τοῦ σελίνου. βουλόμενος οὖν αὐτοὺς ἀπαλλάξαι τῆς δεισιδαιμο‑
νίας καὶ τὴν δυσελπιστίαν ἀφελεῖν, ὁ Τιμολέων ἐπιστήσας τὴν πορείαν
ἄλλα τε <πολλὰ> πρέποντα τῷ καιρῷ διελέχθη, καὶ τὸν στέφανον αὐτοῖς
ἔφη πρὸ τῆς νίκης κομιζόμενον αὐτομάτως εἰς τὰς χεῖρας ἥκειν, ᾧπερ
Κορίνθιοι στεφανοῦσι τοὺς Ἴσθμια νικῶντας, ἱερὸν καὶ πάτριον στέμμα (5)
(4.) <τὸ> τοῦ σελίνου νομίζοντες. ἔτι γὰρ τότε τῶν Ἰσθμίων, ὥσπερ νῦν τῶν
(5.) Νεμείων, τὸ σέλινον ἦν στέφανος, οὐ πάλαι δ’ ἡ πίτυς γέγονεν.” (Plutarch, Life of Timoleon).
From Solon (638–558 BC) onwards, for he laid it down that “the victor in the Isthmian games was to be paid a hundred drachmas, and the Olympic victor five hundred” (Plutarch, Live of Solon23.3). According to Diogenes Laertius, Solon “diminished the honours paid to Athletes who were victorious in the games, fixing the prize for a victor at Olympia at five hundred drachmae, and for one who conquered at the Isthmian games at one hundred” (Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Philosophers 1.55: Solon; Greek). For comparison: the daily wage for a skilled worked was approximately 1 drachma. Victors in the Isthmian games were not included in those athletes that were entitled to free meals in the [Prytaneion] (IG I3 131).
