With the passage of time, blood sports such as boxing, pankration, and hand-to-hand combat with swords, axes, and maces were introduced and "tame" events such as the foot races were dropped. Gradually, the games degenerated into a brutal, bloody, and indecent spectacle, even involving actual sex acts.

   The behaviour of the spectators was no better than that of the contestants. Women were still, as always, excluded from the games either as participants or as spectators. Boys, however, were admitted and public pederasty in the stands was commonplace. 

   Kraton's eyewitness account follows: ".............some 1300 stadia from Nemekha to Laonia. I walked this distance in twelve days, arriving too late for the butchery with sword, axe, and mace. Having just returned from the Persian War, I had seen enough of that sort of thing for a lifetime. Todays events are the boxing competition. Eight pairs of boxers will fight each other. Then the victors will fight, and then the victors of those fights will fight each other, and so on until one champion emerges. The objective of boxing is to castrate one's opponent with blows to the genitals. Blows must be struck with the fists only and no blows above the shoulders are permitted. The boxers wear gloves of hard leather, as hard as wood. The referees carry whips and rods with which to beat the boxers to punish fouls or to break up clinches.

   When I arrived at the stadium , I found a crowd of boys gathered around the entrance. Most of them had their tunics hitched up over their buttocks to indicate their availability for sex in exchange for the cost of admission. Probably all of them would get to see the boxing matches. My eye was caught by a handsome young eunuch of about 18, as naked as an athlete. He had evidently been castrated recently because he sported a fine erection.I smiled at him and beckoned him over and bought admission tokens for the two of us.He introduced himself as Egon.

   I had paid for seats near the arena and on the south side of the stadium, where we had a chance of being out of the sun for much of the day.As I looked about the stadium, I could see that most of the boys present were seated in men's laps and some of them were bouncing up and down on the men's phalloses, mostly covered by their own and the men's tunics. Egon offered to suck me off, but I told him that it was too early for that. I'd rather save it for later when we were excited by the fights.

   Though the games had lost their religious significance, each day's events began with an invocation of Makhos and a benediction by his priest. There was a blaring of horns and the priest of Makhos entered the stadium surrounded by an honor guard of eight hoplites. I could hardly hear or understand a word he said. Then they all did a smart about-face and marched out of the stadium. The first pair of boxers marched into the center of the arena and a referee spoke to them, reminding them of the rules. They touched gloves and backed off a couple of paces. The referee shouted 'FIGHT !'
   The two boxers were a young man of about 20 , brown-haired, lithe, and wiry, and an older man in his late 20's, black-haired, heavy-set, and very muscular. His muscles were sheathed with fat as protection against body blows. The younger man would have to rely on his agility, lacking any such protection. Of course, both boxers were naked as were all participants in the games.

   The boxers pounded at each other's hips and buttocks as they turned this way and that seeking to take the opponent's blows on less vulnerable parts of the body. The younger boxer drove a hard blow into the left side of his opponent's lower belly, but it rebounded without doing any damage, though it left a bruise.Before he could turn away, though, he caught a powerful punch to the solar plexus. He staggered back gasping for breath, for the moment disoriented. This was all the opportunity his opponent needed. 

   The older boxer's next punch started from the sand and ended its arc on the younger man's sex organs, lifting him into the air and throwing him over backward. He doubled over, holding himself with both gloved hands. The older man punched him in the stomach with great force. Even as far away as I was, I could hear the youth's stomach burst. He fell back turned his head to the side and vomited blood. His hands fell away from his genitals. Instantly, his opponent was upon him pounding at his testicles with both hands until there was nothing left of the younger man's genitals but a bloody pulp.By the time the referees carried him off the sand, the young man appeared to be dead. The winner was led to the judges' box on the other side of the stadium and awarded a laurel wreath. The real prize, of course, would be the champion's wreath of gold oak-leaves.
   While the slaves were shovelling up the bloody sand and scattering clean sand over the spot, Egon put his head under my tunic and began sucking my phallus which had become very stiff. I was looking to the left at the time and saw the boy in the lap of the man on my left spurt his seed high into the air while the man moaned and shook. Thet was enough for me. I hadn't had sex in 13 days and I filled Egon's mouth with my seed. 

   The next pair of boxers were evenly matched. Indeed, they looked enough alike to be brothers. Both were heavily muscled especially over the belly and chest. They wasted no time, but began immediately to try to soften each other up by a rapid sequence of body blows as they twisted their torsos from side to side to keep their sex organs out of the way of each other's attack.

   One of the boxers turned too far in trying to take a blow on his hip and his opponent hooked around behind him and smashed into his left kidney. He screamed and was momentarily helpless. His opponent drove his right fist up like a hammer, catching the injured fighter's testicles and dragging them up along his lower belly. A lump appeared in his right groin. It looked to me like a rupture. He backed away quickly. One blow to that rupture and he was a dead man. He was now at a great disadvantage, seriously weakened. His opponent, however, became over-confident. Coming in for the kill, he turned too late in avoiding a blow to the genitals. The blow struck the hip joint. I distinctly heard the bone break.

   The ruptured boxer backed away as his opponent, unable even to stand, much less walk, crumpled to the sand. While struggling to turn himself over with his arms, he left his groin unprotected. The ruptured boxer jumped at him and drove a hammer-like blow down onto the fallen boxer's testicles, driving them against the pubic bone. That blow ended the fight. The winner, however, was disqualified from participating in the run-off because of his hernia.

   Egon and I fondled and kissed each other while waiting for the third pair of boxers to come out. When they did, they were an ill-favored-looking pair. Both of them had hairy bodies and coarse beards. One was bowlegged and the other was so cross-eyed that I could see it from half-way across the stadium. I wasn't really interested in watching that pair of apes, nor was Egon. He resumed sucking my phallus while I looked around the stadium, noting that there were several small orgies involving five or six men and their boys going on in the stands.

   The bout ended quickly.  The cross-eyed boxer, apparently aiming for his opponent's chest, missed and struck him in the neck. He fell senseless. Before the cross-eyed boxer could begin pounding his fallen opponent's genitals. the referees began beating him with rods and lashing him with whips. A physician ran out onto the sand and examined the fallen boxer. He rose, gestured for silence, and in a loud voice proclaimed him dead. The cross-eyed boxer started to run for the gate, but four soldiers came through it bearing manacles and fettered him. 'He will be charged with murder.' said a man to my right.

   Bravado made the next bout a draw. Both boxers were young, probably not over 21, strongly muscled, agile and exceptionally well-endowed. Each of them presented an excellent target for his opponent's attempts to castrate him. One of them, probably a foreigner, had red hair, and his opponent black. It was a long fight. Both men were skilful and agile and continued to evade a decisive blow. Before the fight ended, both men were covered with bruises.

    What seemed to be the decisive blow came suddenly. Sand is a treacherous surface on which to fight. I know this well from battles on the beach in the Persian War. The red-head slipped. Before he could recover his balance, the black-haired boxer had delivered a shattering blow to his tight bag which flattened the red-head's testicles. While he lay on his back helpless, three more blows bursted his bag and spattered the contents of his male glands over his belly and thighs. 

   The fight should have ended then. However, his arrogant vainglorious opponent stood over him, one foot planted on each side of his heaving chest, and taunted him. Suddenly, his defeated castrated opponent jumped up simultaneously driving his fist up into the victor's crotch, crushing his testicles against the perineum. The apparent winner fell at the feet of the apparent loser, screaming, retching, and writhing. Though bent over and manifestly ruined, the red-headed boxer remained on his feet.

    Two referees helped him over to the judges' box where he was praised highly but not awarded a laurel wreath because the bout has been declared a draw. He then collapsed and was carried out of the stadium as was his opponent.

   It was clear that the run-offs would be smaller than expected as three fights already had no winner, who could compete.Egon did not see the outcome of this fourth bout and I almost didn't, for I was spurting into his mouth. 

   The fifth bout was disgraceful. Both fighters were inexperienced, ill-trained, and ill-developed. They circled each other until the referees whipped them to make them fight. Punch after punch missed entirely. The crowd was restless and disgusted and began jeering the pair.The treacherous sand was the real victor. One of the young striplings stumbled and was knocked over backward by a blow to the belly. Instead of covering his crotch, he used his hands to try to get up. His opponent pounded his stones to a pulp before he could protect himself. I couldn't hear what the judge said to the winner, but I heard afterward that it was 'Here's your wreath. You ought to be ashamed to accept it.'

   The sixth bout was something else, though. The two boxers were mature men of about thirty, equal in height, weight, strength, and experience. This was the longest bout of all. They pounded away at each other inconclusively while the shadows lengthened. By the time the fight ended they had so many purple bruises that they were starting to look like Africans. Yet, neither could get a blow to the other's groin. It was an endurance contest which exhaustion would bring to an end. Indeed, both men were staggering at the end of the fight. Finally, one of the men just put his gloved hands over his groin and absorbed his opponent's blows, no longer able to make an effective offense.

    It is impossible to win a defensive fight whether in a war or in the arena. Finally, the fighter who had given up raised his hands from his groin and placed them atop his head, inviting the blow which would ruin him and end this otherwise interminable fight. His opponent stood there for a moment unwilling to do it. The referees whipped them both, shouting 'FIGHT !' The probable winner suddenly seized the two referees and slammed their heads together. Then he turned and walked slowly out of the stadium. His opponent followed him reeling like a drunkard from exhaustion.

   The mood of the crowd is always unpredictable. To my surprise, they cheered, as did I and Egon. 

   I was beginning to wonder if the boxing matches could be finished before sunset when the games must cease for the day. Bout number seven, however, was a farce. One of the two men had the sun in his eyes. They should have been placed facing north and south rather than east and west. He never saw the first blow coming, dazzled as he was by the sun. It caught his testicles

ramming them against the pubic bone. The first blow did not break them, but it sent him to the sand where, shortly, he lost consciousness. Then, of course, his opponent had all the time he needed to batter the testicles to a pulp. The crowd was not very happy, but, at least, there was a clear victor.

   The last bout involved much trading of body blows. One of the boxers received a blow just under the breastbone and turned blue in the face. He stood there gasping for breath and was clearly in great distress. As he collapsed, his opponent managed to rain a quick succession of blows on his genitals which decisively ended the fight by destroying them. The physician came out onto the sand and examined the loser and reported that he was dead. It had been a fair blow, however, and so, no criminal charges were made against the winner.

   The judges came out into the center of the stadium and announced that the championship bouts would be fought the next day because the sun was setting. So ended the first day of boxing.

TO BE CONTINUED