The Code of Health and Longevity

I i 6 APPENDIX. figures which still remain,that of the Difcololus, for ex­ ample, are in faft, individual portraits ; and might al- moft without a hyperbole, be called living examples of the perfe£tion which the human form is capable of at­ taining. The Romans feem to have derived theirinclination for public combats, as they did many other of their arts, from the Greeks. But to engage perfonally in thefe con- tefts, appears to have been conlidered as incompatible with the Hern dignity and decorum of the republican charafter. They therefore hired perfons to contend with each other for their amufement. From the vidlor receiving aprize or reward, they were termed Athletce. But the warlike genius of the Roman people foon led them to require exhibitions of a more Sanguinary nature. Thefe were performed by the gladiators, who at firft confifted of captives taken in war, who were compelled to fight with each other for the amufement of the popu­ lace. Afterwards perfons voluntarily embraced that mode of obtaining a livelihood, and hired themfelves for money to fuch as chofe to court popularity, bytreating the public with an exhibition of this kind, of which they had become extremely fond. The gladiators fought with fwords and other weapons, and their combats be­ came mortal at the will of the fpecSlators. Notwithftanding the degradation of the exercifes of the pala-Jlrci among the Romans, from the rank of a libe­ ral art, a certain degree of bodily flrength and adivity was indifpehfably requifite to thofe by whom they con­ tinued to be pradtifed. To acquire this, it was requi- lite to comply with certain rules of regimen and excr- cife, concerning the nature of which a coniiderable fliar'e of fufficiently accurate information may ftill be gleaned. '• Horace