In any case it is certain that the gymnasia of the classic period gave sufficient opportunity for different kinds of gymnastic exercises, as well as for wrestling and the various contests, and also supplied places for recreation and comfortable repose from the fatigues of physical exertion. The superintendence of the youths who practised here, and the maintaining of order were the duty of the _Gymnasiarchs_. They had the right of discipline, which they could exercise on any visitor to the gymnasium, and in token of this they carried a rod; thus we often see on vase pictures, among the gymnasts, men with long sticks, probably meant to represent the gymnasiarchs. In the older period at Athens there was but one gymnasiarch, but afterwards several shared the dignity. We cannot decide how far they also exercised a right of control over the wrestling-schools. Besides the gymnasiarch, or perhaps below him, was a board of officials whose duty it was to see to the preservation of the buildings and of the implements used in the gymnasia, while the general superintendence of the gymnastic exercises, and therefore also of the gymnasia, was exercised by the superintendents mentioned above (page 113), and, as a rule, men somewhat advanced in years were chosen for these posts. There were other officials who were not so much concerned with the external arrangements of the gymnasia as with the instruction given there. The president of the gymnasium and head of the teachers (κοσμητής) is not mentioned until the late Hellenic and Roman periods; under him were the actual teachers and also those who instructed the ephebi in grammar, rhetoric, and philosophy; but in the classic period no instruction of this kind was given. At that time, however, we find the trainer (γυμναστής) acting as gymnastic teacher to the older youths, whose aim was to prepare themselves for athletic contests, and who intended to enter the lists as professional athletes. As boys were sometimes prepared for such contests, no doubt the trainer sometimes took the place of the ordinary teacher; and again, on the other hand, a competent gymnastic master sometimes undertook the training of athletes. Generally speaking, however, in the older period this distinction was maintained, that the boys’ teacher was concerned chiefly with the general training of the body suitable for everyone, and wrestling on a rational and hygienic basis, while the trainer was a professional teacher, and was more concerned with special subjects than the general harmonious development of the body. Below these teachers stood the rubber (ἀλείπης), whose task was originally a purely mechanical one, but gradually when anointing and rubbing came to be regarded from the hygienic point of view, and were perhaps connected with a kind of _massage_, his standing improved, and after a time he took a far more important position than belonged to him of right.