Valerius Maximus, Facta et Dicta Memorabilia 8.15.12 ext. 4: Pherenike/ Callipateira breaking the Olympic ban

Valerius Maximus, Facta et Dicta Memorabilia 8.15.12 ext. 4: Pherenike/ Callipateira breaking the Olympic ban

early 1st century CE

Historical Anecdotes

Literary source

The same anecdote is also transmitted, though with several minor and major differences, by Pseudo-Aeschines, Epistulae 4.5; Pausanias, Graeciae Descriptio 5.6.7-8 and 6.7.2; Scholion on Pindar, Olympia 7.1; Flavius Philostratus, De Gymnastica 17; Claudius Aelianus, Varia Historia 10.1; Plinius Maior, Naturalis Historia 7.133.

It was likewise not an ordinary distinction that was granted to Berenice, as she alone among all the women was allowed to attend the gymnastic festival when she brought her son Eucles to the Olympic games to take part in the contest. She was born from a father who was an Olympic victor, and by her side were her brothers who had won the same crown.

translation by Alexander Meeus for the Cynisca project

Berenices quoque non vulgaris honos, cui soli omnium feminarum gymnico spectaculo interesse permissum est, cum ad Olympia filium Euclea certamen ingressurum adduxisset, olympionice patre genita, fratribus eandem palmam adsecutis latera eius cingentibus.

Karl Friedrich Kempf (ed.), Valerius Maximus, Factorum et Dictorum Memorabilium, Libri Novem, Leipzig 1888.