Games and gymnastics, however, seem to have occupied the larger part of the boy’s time. The private school where these were practised was known as a _palæstra_, a name derived from the Greek word for wrestling. The exercises must have been given out of doors originally, and whatever structures were used for them in later times can hardly have contained more than an open court for wrestling, with one or more small rooms adjoining, where clothing might be laid aside or put on and where oil and sand were kept, and some provision for bathing in case there was no stream close at hand. No clothing of any sort was worn during the exercises. These seem to have included most of the forms practised in later life—running, the broad jump with and without weights in the hands, throwing the javelin and the discus for distance, and above all, wrestling, besides the rudiments of boxing, and a form of the _pancratium_, a struggle which combined certain features of both boxing and wrestling with others of its own.[1] Mention is also made of simple exercises to develop correct carriage and a graceful step in walking, and it is said that the art of swimming was early acquired, and that games, especially those in which the ball was used, were by no means forgotten. Dancing, at least in its more advanced forms, was not a regular subject of instruction at Athens, but was left to choral bands which received special training for their appearance before the public on festal occasions. Upon reaching the age of eighteen the youth, now known as an _ephebe_, passed under state control for a two-year period of discipline comparable to the enforced military service in modern continental Europe. He first took a solemn oath of allegiance, and was then sent to join the garrisons at the neighboring harbor of the Piræus, for training in the use of weapons and the performance of a soldier’s duties. At the end of the first year he received from the state a shield and spear, and might now be employed at other garrison ports or as a frontier patrol. Hunting afforded additional preparation for active warfare. Meanwhile the former gymnastic exercises were continued, but for these, instead of visiting the palæstra, he now joined the grown men in the city gymnasia. The ephebes were conspicuous figures in the numerous local festivals held at Athens, taking part in processions like that represented on the frieze of the Parthenon, and in various athletic events. Aside from this later gymnastic and military training there was no higher education in Greece until the rise of the sophists, or professional lecturers on rhetoric and philosophy, after the middle of the fifth century before Christ.