the beaft could not get loose without leaving his hoof in his hands. He could hold a chariot behind, while the coachman whipped his horfes in vain to make them go forward. Darius Nothus, king of Perfia, hearing of his prodigious ftrength, was defirous of feeing him, and invited him to Sufa. Three foldiers of that prince's guard, and of that band which the Perfians called immortal, esteemed the most warlike of their troops, were ordered to fall upon him. Our champion fought and killed them all three.

Of Boxing, or the Ceftus.

Boxing is a combat at handy blows, from whence it derives its name. The combatants covered their fifts with a kind of offenfive arms, called Ceftus, and their heads with a fort of leather cap, to defend their temples and ears, which were most exposed to blows, and to deaden their violence. The ceftus was a kind of gauntlet, or glove, made of ftraps of leather, and plated with brafs, lead, or iron, withinfide. Their use was to ftrengthen the hands of the combatants, and to add violence to their blows.

Sometimes the Athlete came immediately to the most violent blows, and began with charging in the most furious manner. Sometimes whole hours paffed in harraffing and fatiguing each other, by a continual extenfion of their arms, rendering each other's blows ineffectual, and endeavouring in that manner of defence to keep off their adversary. But when they fought with the utmoft fury, they aimed chiefly at the head and face, which parts they were most careful to defend, by either avoiding or catching the blows made at them. When a combatant came on to throw himself with all his force and vigour upon another, they had a furprifing addrefs in avoiding the attack, by a nimble turn of the body, which threw the imprudent adverfary down, and deprived him of the victory.

However fierce the combatants were against each other, their being exhausted by the length of the combat, would frequently reduce them to the neceffity of

making a truce: upon which the battle was fufpended for fome minutes, that were employed in recovering their fatigue, and rubbing off the fweat in which they were bathed: after which they renewed the fight, till one of them, by letting fall his arms through weakness, or by fwooning away, explained that he could no longer fupport the pain or fatigue, and defired quarter; which was confeffing himself vanquished.

Boxing was one of the rudest and most dangerous of the gymnaftic combats; because, befides the danger of being crippled, the combatants ran the hazard of their lives. They fometimes fell down dead, or dying, upon the fand; though that feldom happened, except the vanquifhed perfon perfifted too long in not acknowledging his defeat: yet it was common for them to quit the fight with a countenance fo disfigured, that it was not easy to know them afterwards; carrying away with them the fad marks of their vigorous refiftance, fuch as bruises and contufions in the face, the lofs of an eye, their teeth knocked out, their jaws broken, or fome more confiderable fracture.

We find in the poets, both Latin and Greek, feveral defcriptions of this kind of combat. In Homer, that of Epeus and Euryalus; in Theocritus, of Pollux and Amycus; in Virgil, that of Dares and Entellus; and in Statius, and Valerius Flaccus, of several other combatants.

Of the Pancratium.

The Pancratium" was fo called from two Greek words which fignify that the whole force of the body was neceffary for fucceeding in it. It united boxing and wrestling in the fame fight, borrowing from one its manner of firuggling and flinging, and from the other, the art of dealing blows, and of avoiding them with fuccefs. In wrestling it was not permitted to ftrike with the hand, nor in boxing to feize each other in the manner of wreftlers: But in the Pancratium, it was not only allowed to • Diofcor. Ídyl. xxii. Argonautic. lib. ii. Encid. 1. i. Thebaid. 1. vi. Argonaut. 1. iv. ↳ Har Agari.

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make

make ufe of all the gripes and artifices of wrestling, but the hands and feet, and even the teeth and nails, might be employed to conquer an antagonist.

This combat was the most rude and dangerous. A Pancratiaft in the Olympic games (called Arrichion, or Arrachion) perceiving himfelf almoft fuffocated by his adversary, who had got faft hold of him by the throat, at the fame time that he held him by the foot, broke one of his enemy's toes, the extreme anguifh of which obliged him to ask quarter at the very inftant Arrichion himfelf expired. The Agonothetæ crowned Arrichion, though dead, and proclaimed him victor. Philoftratus has left us a very lively defcription of a painting, which represented this combat.

Of the Difcus, or Quoit.

The Difcus was a kind of quoit of a round form, made fometimes of wood, but more frequently of ftone, lead, or other metal; as, iron, or brafs. Those who used this exercise were called Difcoboli, that is, flingers of the Difcus. The epithet xarwadios, which fignifies borne upon the fhoulders, given this inftrument by Homer, fufficiently shows, that it was of too great a weight to be carried from place to place in the hands only, and that the fhoulders were neceffary for the fupport of fuch a burthen any space of time.

The intent of this exercife, as of almoft all the others, was to invigorate the body, and to make it more capa. ble of fupporting the weight and ufe of arms. In war they were often obliged to carry fuch loads, as appear exceffive in thefe days, either of provifions, fafcines, palifades; or in fcaling of walls, when to equal the height of them, feveral of the befiegers mounted upon the fhoulders of each other.

The Athletæ, in hurling the Difcus, put themselves into the best posture they could, to add force to their caft. They advanced one foot, upon which leaning the whole weight of their bodies they poised the Difcus in VOL. I.

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their

their hands, and then whirling it round several times almost horizontally, to add force to its motion, they threw it off with the joint ftrength of hands, arms, and body, which had all a fhare in the vigour of the difcharge. He that flung the Difcus fartheft was the victor. The most famous painters and sculptors of antiquity, in their endeavours to reprefent naturally the attitudes of the Discoboli, have left pofterity many master-pieces in their several arts. Quintilian exceedingly extols a ftatue of that kind, which had been finished with infinite care and application by the celebrated Myron: *What can be more finifhed, or express more happily the mufcular distortions of the body in the exercife of the Difcus, than the Discobolus of Myron ?"

Of the Pentathlum.

The Greeks gave this name to an exercife compofed of five others. It was the common opinion, that those five exercises were wrestling, running, leaping, throwing the dart, and the difcus. It was believed that this fort of combat was decided in one day, and fometimes the fame morning; and that the prize, whichwas fingle,could not be given but to the victor in all thofe exercises.

The exercife of leaping, and throwing the javelin, of which the first confifted in leaping a certain length, and the other in hitting a mark with a javelin at a certain distance, contributed to the forming of a foldier, by making him nimble and active in battle, and expert in flinging the fpear and dart.

Of Races.

Of all the exercises which the Athletæ cultivated with so much pains and induftry for their appearance in the public games, running was in the highest eftimation, and held the foremost rank. The Olympic games generally opened with races, and were folemnized at firft with no other exercise.

* Quid tam diftortum et elaboratum, quam eft ille Difcobolus Myronis. QUINTIL. lib. ii. cap. 13.

The

The place where the Athletæ exercifed themselves in running, was generally called the Stadium by the Greeks; as was that wherein they difputed in earnest for the prize. As the lifts or courfe for these games was at first but one *Stadium in length, it took its name from its measure, and was called the Stadium, whether precisely of that extent, or of a much greater. Under the denomination was included not only the space, in which the Athletæ ran, but also that which contained the fpectators of the gymnaftic games. The place where the Athlete contended, was called Scamma, from its lying lower than the reft of the Stadium, on each fide of which, and its extremity, ran an ascent or kind of terrace, covered with feats and benches, upon which the fpectators were feated. The most remarkable parts of the Stadium were its entrance, middle, and extremity.

The entrance of the course was marked at first only by a line drawn on the fand, from fide to fide of the Stadium. To that at length was fubftituted a kind of barrier, which was only a cord strained tight in the front of the horses or men that were to run. fometimes a rail of wood. The opening of this barrier was the fignal for the racers to start.

It was

The middle of the Stadium was remarkable only by the circumftance of having the prizes allotted to the victors fet up there. St. Chryfoftom draws a fine com parison from this cuftom. "As the judges," fays he,

in the races and other games, expofe in the midft of the Stadium, to the view of the champions, the crowns which they are to receive; in like manner the Lord, by the mouth of his prophets, has placed the prizes in the midst of the course, which he designs for those who have the courage to contend for them."

At the extremity of the Stadium was a goal where the

*The Stadium was a land-mea fure amongst the Greeks, and was, ace cording to Herodotus, 1. ii. c. 149, fix hundred feet in extent. Pliny fays, lib. ii. c. 23, that it was fix hundred and twenty-five. Thofe two authors may agree, confidering the difference between the Greek and Roman foot; befides, which the measure of the Stadium varies, according to the difference of times and places.