" With wrestling, the athletes after wards united the savage practice of box ing, which was known before the Trojan war. Hence arose the two-fold contest, called which was pursued to excess by the athletes, but could scarcely be considered as a part of medi cinal gymnastics in the schools. No an cient physician recommends boxing in a Medical view. The boxers likewise laid great stress on rendering their bodies corpulent, that they might be the better able to bear the blows of their antago nists." The same author adds, " The boxers fought erect, never hugging their antagonist, and throwing him down, but merely striking him : the wrestlers were not allowed to strike : the pancratiasts united the two, both wrestling and strik ing." Kennet refers the Ludus Trojx, cele bt4ted by bands of boys, to the inven tion of Ascanius. The youths engaged in this exercise were selected from the most honourable families of Rome, were ele gantly habited, and armed with weapons of a size proportioned to their age. The commander received the title of Princeps Juventutii, and was sometimes the son of a senator, and not unfrequently the heir to the empire. Augustus was ex tremely partial to their infantile imitations of the ardour of manhood ; and Virgil, aware of his partiality, introduced a de scription of their celebrations in his Eneid. They wore chaplets of flowers on their heads, and their hair flowed loose from beneath it ; their vests were purple ; and twists of gold, disposed in circles, at tached to the neck, spread down their breasts ; quivers hung on their shoulders : they carried two spears; and were mount ed on sRirited horses. Virgil, in the pas sage alluded to, divides the youths into three troops, each consisting of twelve, under the command of a• captain, amount ing in the aggregate to thirty-nine indi viduals. Thus equipped, they walked their horses round the circus.
" When sage Epitides, to give the sign, Crack'd his long whip, and made the course begin." They then started forward at full speed, and afterwards formed into divisions, re turning back.
" — while, from their fingers borne, Their hostile darts aloft upon the wind Fly shivering ; then in circling num bers joi The manag'd coursers with due mea sures bound, And run tile rapid ring, and trace the mazy round.
Files facing files, their bold companions dare, And wheel and charge, and urge the sportive war.
Now flight they feign, and naked backs expose ; Now with turn'd spears drive head Jong on the foes ; And no* confederate grown, in peaceful ranks they close," The chariot races do not strictly be long to this article, but they were so far connected with personal exercises in the Circus, that it would be almost unpardon able to pass them without notice. Strength and agility were entirely useless in the conduct of the chariot ; courage and ad dress in guiding the fiery steeds were all that was requisite in the driver. The charioteers were formed into companies in the Roman Circensian spectacles, and they excited great interest throughout Rome, the inhabitants of which were ge nerally divided into parties, each attached to their favourite company. This, in com mon with their other sports, was derived from the Greeks. The different ancient
divisions were distinguished by the co. lours of their habits, which were green, red, white, and blue : and they were termed the Prasina, the Russata, the Al and the Veneta The antiquity of the Pyrhica, or Salta tio Pyrhica, led ancient authors into many fanciful ideas, whence this warlike dance originated. Homer introduces it in its primitive state, in his description of the twelfth department of the shield of Achil les. " The skilful Vulcan then designed the figure and various motions of a dance, like that which Dxdalus„ of old, contrived in Gnossus for the fair Ariadne. There the young men and maidens danced hand in hand; the maids were dressed in li nen garments, the men in rich and shin ing stuffs ; the maids had flowery crowns on their heads, the men had swords of gold hanging from their sides in belts of silver. Here they seem to run in a ring with active feet, as swiftly as a wheel runs round when tried by the hands of the potter. There they appeared to move in many figures, and sometimes to meet, sometimes to wind from each other. A multitude of spectators stood round, de lighted with the dance. In the middle, two nimble tumblersexercised themselves in feats of activity, while the song was carried on by the whole circle." At the period when the dance was prac tised in the Roman amphitheatres, it had assumed a warlike appearance, the per formers advancing and flying alternately, as if engaged in battle. Claudian says, " Their moving breasts in tuneful changes rise, The shields salute their sides, or straight are shewn In air high waving ; deep the targets groan, Struck with alternate swords, which thence rebound, And end the concert and the sacred sound." Scaliger informs us, with some degree of vanity, that he had often danced the pyrhic in presence of the Emperor Maxi milian, to the admiration and amazement of the inhabitants of Germany, and, as it appears, to that of the Emperor, who, he adds, exclaimed, "This boy either was born in a coat of mail, instead of a skin, or else has been rocked in one in stead of a cradle." Real or supposed improvements in the customs of the European nations have now nearly abolished or altered almost all of the ancient gymnastic exercises ; active feats and sudden turns of the body, or tumbling, are totally despised and confin ed to the most pitiful public exhibitions playing with the ball is very little practia ad ; leaping and foot-races are limited to a few wagers ; pitching the quoit seldom extends beyond the apprentice and the labourer ; throwing the javelin is entirely discontinued ; wrestling, long a favourite athletic exercise in England, belongs al most exclusively to the wanton school boy ; boxing, (thanks to our morals) to the lowest wretches in society ; the tour nament, evidently derived from the Lu das Trojx, is nearly forgotten ; the cha riot race is in the same state of disuse ; and we have nothing which resembles the military pyrhic ; and even the faint simi larity of the games enumerated are sup ported by the caprice of a few individuals, who are often condemned for employing their time to so little purpose.