In spite of the numerous allusions to the instruction of the ephebi which have come down to us, there is a good deal that is still doubtful or unexplained; as, for instance, in how far the trainers also instructed those ephebi who were not in training for the contests, and whether they were paid for their services by the State or by each pupil individually. Afterwards, at any rate, the ephebi as a rule only paid a fee to the teacher for musical instruction, while the gymnastic teacher seems to have been paid by the State. As for the subjects of gymnastic instruction, these were in part the same as those in which the boys had already been trained in the gymnastic school, but gradually becoming more difficult, while others were added to them which were usually excluded from the wrestling school--namely, boxing, pancratium, and pentathlum. Besides these there was fencing with heavy weapons (ὁπλομαχία); the fencing was not properly connected with the exercises of the gymnastic tests, but it formed an important part of the military education of the ephebi, and was the more important for these because, when they attained their majority as citizens, they had to spend several years in a kind of garrison and frontier service (περίπολοι). This was a training for military service which the ephebi, like all other citizens capable of bearing arms, had to perform from their twentieth year upwards, and they generally served the State for two years before in the manner above mentioned. Methodical instruction in fencing was originally rather looked down upon, but still was accepted in the curriculum of the ephebi, and in the inscriptions the fencing-master (ὁπλόμαχος) has a regular place beside the other masters. Plato also recommends fencing as strengthening for the body and useful in case of war, but he warns people to avoid all display and professionalism. In the course of time other exercises in arms were added. Throwing the spear was part of the regular gymnastic training practised even by boys; and in many inscriptions of the last three centuries B.C. mention is made of special teachers (ἀκοντίσται). Shooting with bow and arrows was also learnt, and a teacher for this is mentioned in these inscriptions, as well as one who gave instruction in hurling and in the use of machines for throwing. Probably these purely military exercises were not part of the regular gymnastic curriculum. The same may be said of riding. Every youth had to learn riding, for he had to perform his frontier service on horseback; and at the great festivals, especially the Panathenaea, the troops [Illustration: FIG. 76.]