The meilichai were the only form of boxing glove used in the sixth and fifth centuries, and they continued in use, at all events for practice in the palaestra, during the fourth century. Early in this century, however, they seem to have been superseded in competition by more formidable gloves which Plato describes as σφαῖραι, and which he recommends for use in his ideal state as more closely reproducing the conditions of actual warfare. These σφαῖραι or balls have been identified by Dr. Jüthner with a type of glove represented on certain Panathenaic vases of the fourth century, and also on some Etruscan cistae which belong to the early part of the third century. On the latter the ball-like appearance to which they owed their name is clearly marked. On the well-known Ficoroni cista[[701]] the hand appears to be covered by a glove which leaves the fingers free but extends almost the whole length of the forearm; and the glove is bound on by triple thongs, crossing and recrossing each other, and finally gathered together into a bunch, and secured by passing through a loop at the back of the hand. Very similar is the type represented on the B.M. amphora (Fig. [135]) which bears the name of the Archon Pythodelus, 336 B.C. The glove seems to be formed of thick bands of some soft substance stretching along the arm, and bound round by stout, stiff leather thongs fastened apparently between the fingers and the thumb. The youth to the left, who is waiting to fight the winner, is drawing the end tight with his teeth. On the right is represented, in place of the usual judge, a draped and winged figure of Victory bearing in her hand a palm. A similar glove is represented on another Panathenaic vase, in the Louvre, belonging to the Archonship of Hegesias in 324 B.C.
Fig. 136. Boxer. Terme Museum, Rome. (From a photograph by Anderson.)
Fig. 137. Right hand of boxer, from Sorrento. Naples.
To bind on the hand these complicated thongs must have been a troublesome and lengthy process. And the introduction of the sphairai was followed almost immediately by the invention of gloves which could be drawn on or off more readily. These gloves, which are appropriately described as ἵμαντες ὀξεῖς, are familiar to us from the seated boxer in the Terme at Rome (Fig. [136]). They occur also in a marble figure of a boxer from Sorrento which is now at Naples (Fig. [137]), on an arm also at Naples, and on a hand found at Verona.[[702]] They consist of two parts, a glove and a hard leather ring encircling the knuckles. The glove extends half-way down the forearm and ends in a thick strip of fleece serving doubtless to protect the arm, which might easily be broken by a blow from so formidable a weapon; the glove itself appears from the way in which the straps cut into it to have been padded; the ends of the fingers are cut off and there is an opening on the inside. On the knuckles the glove is provided with a thick pad which prevents the ring in which the fingers are inserted from slipping down. This ring is formed of three to five strips of hard, stiff leather, bound together by small straps, and held in its place by thongs bound round the wrist. It is about an inch wide and half an inch thick, and its sharp, projecting edges must have rendered it a weapon of offence fully as effective as the modern knuckle-duster. Under these circumstances it is amusing to learn from Philostratus that the thumb was not allowed to take any part in the blow for fear of causing severe and unsightly wounds (ὑπὲρ συμμετρίας τῶν τραυμάτων) and that for the same reason the use of pigskin was forbidden.[[703]] In later writers the term “sphairai” seems to be used of these ἵμαντες ὀξεῖς, and inasmuch as they were too dangerous for use in practice, soft, padded gloves were used in the palaestra called ἐπίσθαιρα.[[704]]
These gloves continued in use with but little variation till the second century A.D. at least. Indeed it is doubtful if any other form was ever used in the true Greek festivals. The latest representation of them in art is a relief now in the Lateran supposed to represent the fight between Entellus and Dares.[[705]] The influence of Roman feeling is seen in the fact that both combatants instead of being naked wear a chiton tucked up so as to leave the right shoulder bare.[[706]] The gloves differ little from those described above, except that the thumb is protected by leather thongs, though not bound up with the fingers. Pausanias, Plutarch, and Philostratus know no other form of glove, and none of these writers makes any reference to the masses of lead and iron with which, according to Roman poets, the caestus was loaded. The ἵμαντες ὀξεῖς were certainly capable of inflicting all the injuries on which the writers of epigrams in the Anthology delight to dwell.[[707]] The use of metal to render the caestus heavier and more dangerous is a purely Roman invention, utterly barbarous and entirely fatal to all science in boxing. The Roman caestus may have figured in some of those gladiatorial shows which found favour in some parts of Greece under the empire, but the silence of Philostratus and others proves that it was never used at Olympia, or indeed at any place when any vestige of the athletic tradition of Greece yet lingered.
The caestus has really no place in the history of Greek athletics except in so far as it is a development of the ἵμαντες ὀξεῖς or σφαῖραι of the Greeks. Completely ignorant of true boxing, the Romans assumed that the power of attack could be increased by additional weight. They did not understand that in boxing a quick, sharp blow is far more dangerous and effective than a slow, heavy blow, and that the more the hand is weighted, the slower the blow is, and therefore the easier to guard against or avoid. According to the poets they increased the weight by sewing pieces of lead and iron into the glove. In the existing representations of the caestus the hand seems to be encased in a hard ball or cylinder, from the back of which over the knuckles is a toothed protection presumably of metal, which sometimes takes the form of two or three spikes. These spikes have been sometimes mistaken for the fingers, but their true nature has been conclusively shown by Dr. Jüthner. At the same time the owner was protected by a padded sleeve extending almost to the shoulder. This sleeve is usually made of a skin or fleece with the rough side turned outwards and is secured by straps. On the Lateran Mosaic the whole arm appears to be encased in a hard sheath (Fig. [138]).[[708]]
Fig. 138. Caestus, from mosaic in the Thermae of Caracalla. Lateran Museum.