All the Flagellations we have abovementioned were performed in public Solemnities, or with religious views of some kind or other; but there were other instances of voluntary fustigations (as we learn from the ancient Authors) in which those who performed them were actuated by no such laudable motives; or at least, had no precise intention that has been made known to us. Such were the Flagellations mentioned by St. Jerom, in his Observations on the Epitaph of the Widow _Marcella_. In these Observations St. Jerom informs us, that there were Men in Rome silly enough to lay their posteriors bare in the public Markets, or open Streets, and to suffer themselves to be lashed by a pretended Conjuror. ‘It is no wonder (says he) that a false Diviner lashes the buttocks of those blockheads in the middle of the Streets, and in the Market-place[37].’ And these Conjurors not only lashed the persons who desired them to do so, but they, at other times, would also lash themselves, as we learn from Plautus, though an early Writer; for those Flagellations we mention were, it seems, an old practice among the vulgar in Rome. ‘Pray, is it not (says an Actor in one of this Author’s Plays) is it not the Conjuror who lashes himself[38]?’ Another proof of the practice of those both active and passive flagellations which prevailed among the People in Rome, is also to be drawn from the above-mentioned Book of Festus, on the _Signification of words_. Festus, explaining in that Book the signification of the word _Flagratores_, says, that this word signified ‘those who allowed themselves to be whipped for money.’ And M. Dacier, a person of consummate learning in all that relates to Antiquity, says, in his Notes on the above Author, that the word _Flagratores_ signified likewise ‘those who whipped others:’ he adds, that this was the more common acceptation of the word[39]. Besides the flagellations just mentioned, which perhaps were also owing to some superstitious notion or other in those persons who practised them, we find, in antient Authors, instances of lashings and whippings performed in a way perfectly jocular, and as a kind of innocent pastime. None is more remarkable than that which is related by Lucian of the Philosopher Peregrinus. This Peregrinus (Lucian observes) was a Cynic Philosopher of a very impudent disposition. He lived in the time of the Emperor Trajan: after having embraced the Christian Religion, he returned to his former Sect: and then used frequently to lash himself in public in rather an indecent manner. ‘Surrounded by a croud of Spectators, he handled his _pudendum_ (αἰδοῖον) which he exhibited as a thing, he said, of no value. He afterwards both gave himself, and received from the Bystanders, lashes upon his posteriors, and performed a number of other juvenile tricks equally surprizing as these.’