_Hunc morem hos cursus atque hæc certamina primus Ascanius, longam muris cum cingeret Albam Rettulit, & priscos docuit celebrare Latinos. Quo puer ipse modo, secum quo Troia pubes. Albani docuere suos, hinc maxima porro Accepit Roma & patrium servavit honorem: Trojaque nunc pueri Trojanum dicitur agmen._ This game long since, this martial exercise Ascanius brought, when Alba’s walls he rear’d. Whence the old Latins celebrate the same, As he a lad, with him the Trojan youth. The Albans taught it theirs: from them great Rome Learnt it, and to their country’s honour call The game _Troy town_, the boys the _Trojan band_. I conceive this game was of two sorts; that performed on foot; that on horse-back, or in chariots: the intent of both was to exercise the youth in warlike activity, for it was a sort of mock fight: that on foot was the _Pyrrhic_ dance. Suetonius says, _lusus ipse quem vulgo Pyrrhicum appellant Troja vocatur_. If we carry it up to its first original, we must affirm it was invented by the _Corybantes_, _Idei dactyli_, _Curetes_, whose institution, when confirmed among the Romans, was continued by the priests called _Salii_, dancing in armour, and clashing their weapons together with some sort of concert. Likewise the real soldiers had the same festival, which they called _armilustrium_, celebrated on the 19. Octob. of which Varro gives us an account _de lingua Lat._ Suetonius mentions it in _Tiberio_, c. 72. This, whether performed on foot or horse-back, by children, priests or soldiers, was manifestly the same thing: their gestures, turnings, returnings, knots and figures, their assaults, retreat, and the like, were aptly represented by mazes and labyrinths; which very comparison Virgil uses. _Ut quondam Cretâ fertur labyrinthus in altâ, Parjetibus textum cæcis iter, ancipitemque Mille viis habuisse dolum, qua signa sequendi Falleret indeprensus & irremeabilis error._ Such was in Crete the labyrinth of yore, In crooked tracks immur’d, a thousand ways Doubtful and dark: whence the return obscure, Inextricable, in endless mazes lost. It is likely these works of ours, made in the turf, were cast up, in order to teach the children the method of it. That on foot is elegantly described by Claudian _de_ VI. _consul. Honorii_, v. 622. _Armatos hic sæpe choros, certaque vagandi Textas lege fugas, inconfusosque recursus, Et pulchras errorum artes, jucundaque Martis Cernimus: insonuit cum verbere signa magister. Mutatosque edunt pariter tot pectora motus, In latus allisis clypeis, aut rursus in altum Vibratis. grave parma sonat mucronis acuti Murmure, & umbonum pulsu modulante resultans Ferreus alterno concentus clauditur ense._