OF BOXING, OR THE CESTUS.—The combatants covered their fists with a kind of offensive arms called _cestus_, and their heads with a sort of leather cap, to defend their temples and ears, which were most exposed to blows, and to deaden their violence. The cestus was a kind of gauntlet or glove, made of straps of leather, and plated with brass, lead, or iron, inside. Their use was to strengthen the hands of the combatants, and to add violence to their blows. Boxing was one of the rudest and most dangerous of the gymnastic combats; because, besides the danger of being crippled, the combatants ran the hazard of losing their lives. They sometimes fell down dead, or dying, upon the sand; though that seldom happened, except the vanquished person persisted too long in not acknowledging his defeat: yet it was common for them to quit the fight with a countenance so disfigured, that it was not easy to know them afterwards. OF THE PANCRATIUM.—The Pancratium was so called from two Greek words[40] which signify that the whole force of the body was necessary for succeeding in it. It united boxing and wrestling in the same fight, borrowing from one its manner of struggling and throwing, and from the other, the art of dealing blows, and of avoiding them with success. OF THE DISCUS, OR QUOIT.—The discus was a kind of quoit of a round form, made sometimes of wood, but more frequently of stone, lead, or other metal, as iron or brass. Those who used this exercise were called Discoboli; that is, flingers of the discus. The athletæ, in hurling the discus, put themselves into the best posture they could, to add force to their cast. He that flung the discus farthest was the victor. The most famous painters and sculptors of antiquity, in their endeavours to represent naturally the attitudes of the discoboli, have left posterity many masterpieces in their several arts. Quintilian exceedingly extols a statue of this kind, which had been finished with infinite care and application by the celebrated Myron[41]. OF THE PENTATHLUM.—The Greeks gave this name to an exercise composed of five others:—wrestling, running, leaping, throwing the dart, and the discus. It is believed that this sort of combat was decided in one day, and sometimes the same morning; and that the prize, which was single, could not be given but to the victor in all those exercises. OF RACES.—Of all the exercises which the athletæ cultivated with so much pains and industry, for their appearance in the public games, running was in the highest estimation, and held the foremost rank. The place where the athletæ exercised themselves in running, was generally called the _Stadium_ by the Greeks; as was that wherein they disputed in earnest for the prize. Under that denomination was included not only the space in which the athletæ ran, but also that which contained the spectators of the gymnastic games.