the entrails, pulled them forth, and scattered them upon the arena, the poor wretch, of course, dying on the spot. The magistrates who presided at the games banished Damoxene, because it was contrary to the practice of the sport to strike a blow with the intention of causing death, and

A Pugilist. (From an ancient statue.)

the crown was awarded to the dead athlete, to whom also a statue was erected.

Certain pugilists regarded "the profession" from quite another point of view, for they made it their rule never to deliver knock-down blows; they even abstained altogether from striking, and won their battles without once hitting their adversaries. They confined their attention to one thing, to fatigue their antagonists and exhaust their patience without letting them once get at them. In this difficult

kind of fist-fencing no one excelled Melancomas, who lived under the emperor Titus, and was held by him in high esteem. His talents must have been much admired and estimated very highly, for several great orators, among others Dion Chrysostom, have condescended to praise him. Melancomas held out for whole hours, his arms extended in the face of his enemy, who sought in vain to reach him, and bruised himself in vain efforts to break through those two muscular bars, as resistant as steel. It is said that he could remain for two consecutive days in this fatiguing position, while others were utterly exhausted. By this manœuvre he deprived his adversaries of every chance, and forced them, exhausted with the long struggle, to leave him with the victory, for which they would often have preferred paying with their blood.

Melancomas left the arena without having given or received a single blow, a feat which may be regarded as the perfection of the art of self-defence. This manner of combating was much more honourable and more glorious than the other, for he gained his victory not by brute force, but by indomitable courage, perseverance, energy, and the physical strength which he developed and preserved by continual practice and habits of strict temperance. He regarded with pity those of his brethren who, after heavy smashing upon each other's faces, left the arena mutilated and disfigured, and considered this great waste of strength an actual proof of weakness. He contended that athletes, in hastening by violence to gain the victory, only showed that they were incapable of bearing up for a sufficiently long time against the inevitable fatigues of the arena.

Before this great athlete succumbed to his last antagonist, others among the Greeks had adopted his tactics,

among them Glaucus, who excelled in many kinds of physical exercises. His statue, which Pausanias saw at Olympus, represented him in the favourite attitude of Melancomas, with his arms held rigid before him, to keep his adversary at a distance, and render him powerless to do mischief. It is believed, however, that Glaucus also practised the ordinary method with great swiftness and facility, his fist leaving frightful traces wherever it struck. It was he, it is said, whose father saw him using his hand as a hammer to drive in the share of his plough, which had become detached— for he had not been trained originally as an athlete, but as a simple husbandman. Guessing at his son's vigour of arm by the single proof of it which he had witnessed, the father took him to the Olympic games, where Glaucus fought with the cestus. Assailed by an adversary more adroit and more highly trained than himself, he was about to succumb, when his father cried out, 66 Strike, my son, as you did on the plough," and, re-animated by these words, the pugilist redoubled his efforts, and won the battle.

Children, even, practised the style for which Glaucus was distinguished. Among others is mentioned a certain Hippomaches, who in his boyish encounters, defeated in succession three opponents, and left the field without a blow or a cut. In fact the real triumph came to be to finish these rude matches safe and sound, the face unmarked, the body without a bruise. But this rarely happened, the combatants as a rule retiring from the arena dreadfully disfigured and sometimes disabled for life.

The pitiful state in which they were often left would have moved hearts of stone; but the poets, the men who as a rule grow tender frequently on very slight occasion, were not touched, especially the satiric poets, for the Greek

anthology abounds in epigrams upon this favourite subject. In reproducing them we are moved as much by the desire

Children Fighting. (From a carving in the Florence Museum.)

to excite pity for the vanquished as to record the feats of strength performed by the conquerors.

Another Scene. (From the same.)

"The conqueror at the Olympic games whom you see in that dilapidated state had yesterday a nose, a chin, nostrils,

ears, and eyelids. But in the exercise of pugilism he has lost all those embellishments, and even his inheritance. He cannot have a part of his patrimony, for he has been confronted with his portrait, which his brother produced in the court of justice, and it has been decided that he is not the same individual. There is not the

slightest resemblance between the portrait and him."

"Ulysses, on his return to his native country, after twenty years of absence, was recognised by his dog Argos; but thou, Stratophon, after four hours of pugilism, hast become unrecognisable, not only by the dogs, but by the whole town; and if you wish to look at yourself in the mirror you will cry out, I am not Stratophon,' and will take your oath on it." "Apollophanes, thy head has become like a sieve, or like the edges of a book eaten by worms. One would take the cuts which

you

A Pugilist.
(From an ancient statue.)

the cestus has made in it for the notes in a piece of Lydian or Phrygian music. Nevertheless you can fight again without fear of being further disfigured. There is no room left on your head to receive other wounds."

"Andreolus! I have fought valiantly as a pugilist in all the games of Greece. At Pisa I lost an ear, at Plateum an eye, at Delphos they carried me off insensible. But my father, Damoteles, together with my countrymen, were prepared to carry me from the arena either dead or wounded."