Test of Valor Author:Ingles, James Wesley Nicas felt a kind of exhilaration as the final event of the Olympic Games, the pancration, approached. This was the hour toward which for more than a month he had looked forward. Greater and more important to him than his triumph in the penthalon was the effort he was soon to make. He had tried to understand his motives in this, and at first the... more »y had seemed very confused. But gradually he was coming to feel that this contest challenged him especially because it provided him with an ideal worth fighting for. The greatest achievements of Athens had been gained in the generation of those who had withstood fearlessly the Persian might.« less