The Silver tetradrachm heading this post features on the obverse a helmeted and diademed bust of Eucratides, bare shoulders, throwing javelin to his left. The tetradrachm’s reverse has the Greek inscription ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΜΕΓΑΛΟΥ ΕΥΚΡΑΤΙΔΟΥ (of great king Eucratides) around an image of the dioscuri (the twin brothers and sons of Zeus, Pollux and Castor) charging right holding long lances and palms. Peter Thonemann, commenting on this highly individualist and explicitly martial portraiture opined as follows: “… we may be grateful that not all kings paraded their military credentials in quite so butch a fashion as Eucratides I of Bactria.”
Peter Thonemann’s wonderful work, The Hellenistic World: Using Coins as Sources, is a superb introductory survey of both the history and coins of the Hellenistic world from c. 323-31BC. It is engagingly written and well-illustrated, often with coins from the collection of the American Numismatic Society. Although many of the coin photographs which are reproduced are slightly disappointing due to being in black and white and produced life size, when enlargements would have been more suitable, the coins selected for the work were well chosen and served the survey and the reader well. And, since the author and publisher were so careful to credit the sources of the photographs, when a particular coin caught my fancy, I was often able to go the the source on the internet, such as the ANS’s online collection database, and see the original color photographs of the coin.
So, after I read about Eucratides I the Great of Bactria (c. 170-145) and his stunning coins in Thonemann’s work, then saw the coins in their glory on the ANS database, and followed up with an interesting conversation about the coins and what type of workout routines were around in the ancient world with my good friend SF (more about the exercise and workout routines of the ancients below), I knew that a post was forthcoming.
First, what do we know about Eucratides I? From the 2nd century AD writer and historian Justin, we have this small snippet of information:
“Almost at the same time that Mithridates ascended the throne among the Parthians, Eucratides began to reign among the Bactrians; both of them being great men. But the fortune of the Parthians, being the more successful, raised them, under this prince, to the highest degree of power; while the Bactrians, harassed with various wars, lost not only their dominions, but their liberty; for having suffered from contentions with the Sogdians, the Drangians, and the Indians, they were at last overcome, as if exhausted, by the weaker Parthians. Eucratides, however, carried on several wars with great spirit, and though much reduced by his losses in them, yet, when he was besieged by Demetrius king of the Indians, with a garrison of only three hundred soldiers, he repulsed, by continual sallies, a force of sixty thousand enemies. Having accordingly escaped, after a five months’ siege, he reduced India under his power. But as he was returning from the country, he was killed on his march by his son, with whom he had shared his throne, and who was so far from concealing the murder, that, as if he had killed an enemy, and not his father, he drove his chariot through his blood, and ordered his body to be cast out unburied.” Epitome of the Philippic History of Pompeius Trogus, XLI 6.1-5
Appropriate to a king assuming the title “the Great” on his coins (a numismatic innovation of Eucratides, Eucratides also is famous for another numismatic feat, as explained by CoinWeek columnist Mike Markowitz in Metal Monsters: The Biggest Ancient Coins (march 18, 2014):
“[Eucratides] commissioned the largest surviving gold coin struck in antiquity: a 20-stater piece, 58 mm in diameter, weighing 169.2 grams. That’s nearly five and a half ounces. The unique example was found in 1867 in Bukhara (Uzbekistan), nearly 300 miles northwest of the Baktrian heartland. Eventually acquired by Napoleon III, it resides today in the Bibliothéque nationale in Paris.
On the obverse we see the king in profile, wearing a plumed cavalry helmet. On the reverse, the twin heroes Castor and Pollux carry long lances and palm branches and ride prancing horses surrounded by a carelessly lettered inscription: ‘Great King Eucratides.’”
A quick side note before moving on to the portion of the post answering my friend SF’s query about exercise and workout routines in antiquity: as king of Bactria, Eucratides I ruled over the city of Ai Khanoum, which we discussed in an earlier post.
Jack W. Berryman wrote a short essay entitled Motion and rest: Galen on exercise and health published in The Lancet (Vol. 380, Issue 9838, 21 July 2012, pp. 210-211). From the essay is the following relevant quote:
“Exercise was an important component of ancient medical theory and a physician’s duties included the preservation and promotion of health as well as the prevention of disease. In this context, physicians in antiquity emphasised the centrality of exercise and diet, or what was known as regimen, as a key part of one’s way of life.
It was Hippocrates (c 460–370 BC) who wrote three books on regimen and noted that ‘eating alone will not keep a man well; he must also take exercise.’ Galen (c 129–210 AD), who borrowed much from Hippocrates, structured his medical “theory” upon the “naturals” (of, or with nature—physiology), the “non-naturals” (things not innate—health), and the “contra-naturals” (against nature—pathology). Central to Galen’s theory was hygiene (named after the goddess of health Hygieia) and the uses and abuses of Galen’s “six things non-natural”. Galen’s theory was underpinned by six factors external to the body over which a person had some control: air and environment; food (diet) and drink; sleep and wake; motion (exercise) and rest; retention and evacuation; and passions of the mind (emotions). Galen proposed that these factors should be used in moderation since too much or too little would put the body in imbalance and lead to disease or illness.”
Jarrett A. Lobell wrote a short snippet, entitled The Ancient Pursuit of Wellness: Exercise, in the September/October 2021 issue of Archaeology, which explicitly linked exercise to military preparation among the Greeks. I quote more extensively from Lobell:
“For the ancient Greeks, exercise meant competition, often in organized festivals such as the Olympics—the word “athlete” comes from the ancient Greek athlos, meaning contest. Participation in these events was limited to young men of certain classes. Exercise was also a crucial part of preparation for Greek military service, and thus women were excluded. But in the Roman world, exercise was more universally popular, and both men and women were frequent participants. Romans often exercised at the public baths, where both sexes and most social classes regularly gathered, says classicist Nigel Crowther of Western University. Men might play ball, run, wrestle, box, or lift weights. Women swam, played a hoop-rolling game called trochus, and especially favored ball games. ‘Galen suggests that ball games were good training for the fitness of both body and mind,’ Crowther says.”
Finally, as it summarizes so well many of the ancient sources regarding workouts and exercises, I provide the following lengthy quote from an article entitled The Real Gladiator Workout: Train Like A Gladiator (posted 9/14/14) on RENAISSANCE MAN JOURNAL:
“There is a story that was often told of Milo of Croton. This was an Ancient Greek athlete from the Greek city-state of Croton located in what is now southern Italy. He lived in the 6th century BC and was training for the Olympics.
One of the ways that he was training was by taking a newly born bull, hoisting it up on his shoulders and carrying it for some distance. He would do it every day. As time passed, the bull would grow larger and so Milo kept on hoisting more and more weight. This culminated with him walking into the Olympic stadium with a full grown bull on his shoulders.
So over time he was increasing the weight he was lifting. This is basically the birth of progressive overload. The ancients knew that if you want your muscles to grow and get stronger, you need to lift heavier and heavier weights.
Another principle from the ancient world is that of periodization. Many gladiator schools probably used periodization training, which is an organization of training that splits training into blocks of time, each one focusing on different skills. They would be training all day and split their training into units of time during which they would focus on just one skill.
The ancient gladiators also knew about the intensity of training and that you should not go into training full speed at the beginning, but need to warm up first, otherwise you risk injury. Galen wrote that intensity should be increased gradually: “Intensity should be gradually increased, peaking at the end. This should be of special concern in order to avoid injury to competitors.”
The cool-down process was also important. Hippocrates (an Ancient Greek doctor) said that “those who walk after exercising will then have a stronger and more rested body.” This means that there should be a period of cool down after intense training and people should not fall down and lie on the ground immediately, but instead the person should cool down by walking around. Also on rest days, according to Hippocrates, the athlete should not do completely nothing, but instead do something of low intensity.
The ancients were very aware of the dangers of over-training and many of the doctors preached against it. They knew that the body needs rest in order to recover from intense training and also that your body achieves the best results if rest is a part of your routine.
Throughout their training, the gladiators would use different types of equipment and do all kinds of varied exercises.
Galen divided exercises into three types:
Vigorous exercises: These were exercises performed with strength, but without speed. Examples of these include: digging, picking up any kind of heavy load and either standing still with it or walking (especially up a hill), climbing a rope, hanging from rope or beam for as long as possible, holding arms up (with or without weights) while partner tried pushing them in a downwards direction…etc. These exercises show that the Ancient Greeks and Romans had an understanding of overload (including progressive overload) and its positive effects on building strength and muscles.
Speed exercises: Here the primary objective was speed, apart from strength and force. Examples of these include: running, shadow boxing, hitting the punching bag, running around with balls, arm and leg exercises like drill stuff…etc.
A particular example of this type of exercise that was performed has the Greek name “pitylysma”. The exercise goes like this: start by standing on tip toes, stretch your arms upwards, move one arm quickly forward, while moving the other one backwards, roll quickly on the ground, quickly come up, stand erect and start jumping up and down, sometimes with a backward kick, sometimes bringing each leg forward in an alternating fashion.
Violent exercises: These combined speed and strength. Exercises classified as vigorous became violent if you increased their speed – jumping continuously without rest, or any speed exercises performed with weight became violent – moving around quickly in heavy armor.
The word ‘violent’ in this context could be better understood if you use it as a synonym for the word ‘power.’ A recommendation of Galen for these types of exercises was to rest between the different individual exercises.”
So, yes, the highly muscled king appearing on those beautiful coins likely had plenty of thoughtful exercise routines behind those sculpted muscles — or he kept buff by throwing lots of javelins while trying to preserve his kingdom.
Northcoast Antiquarian 
