We mentioned above that the place where the ephebi received their gymnastic instruction, or practised on their own account, was the gymnasium. The gymnasia, of which every town possessed one or more, were not, like the wrestling schools, private undertakings on the part of gymnastic teachers, but State institutions. At Athens the two oldest institutions of the kind were the Academy and the Cynosarges, at the foot of the Lycabettos, and in the time of Pericles the Lyceum was added as a third; the gymnasium of Ptolemy was not built till the Hellenistic period. The originally simple structure and arrangement of these institutions became in the course of centuries more complicated and extensive; and, though the first gymnasia were probably not more than simple halls supported by columns, with a racecourse attached, in course of time other rooms were added, and also baths, since the gymnastic exercises rendered bathing immediately afterwards absolutely necessary. At the time of Plato a number of different rooms belonging to the gymnasia are mentioned, which show that even at that time these must have been very extensive. We cannot clearly tell, from the accounts of the Greek writers, how these rooms were arranged and connected, and the description given by Vitruvius of a gymnasium is but unsatisfactory, because in many points he is not clear in his expressions. Moreover, it does not give a general scheme, but only a particular description, and this may not refer to his own period, as has been generally assumed, since the Roman gymnasia were on a far more complicated plan than the one described by Vitruvius, but rather to an earlier period, though not the best.
We are enabled to complete and correct the statements of Vitruvius from the ruins of various gymnasia in Asia Minor and Greece, especially those of Pergamum and Olympia. The description of Vitruvius connects the gymnasium and the wrestling school, but we must distinguish this wrestling place, which was a necessary part of the whole plan of the gymnasium, from that mentioned above, which was only used as a gymnastic school for boys. In the plan given by Vitruvius the centre is a square court with covered arcades; connected with this are a space for the ephebi, rooms for exercises with the corycus (boxing with a dummy), for anointing, sprinkling with dust or sand previous to wrestling, bath-rooms for hot and cold baths, etc.; further, in connection with these principal buildings there are covered racecourses, with levelled floors, gardens, and places for exercise, for rest, exedrae, etc. The arrangements of the gymnasium at Olympia, which probably dates from the end of the fourth or the beginning of the third century B.C., seem to have been simpler. We can distinguish two separate buildings—a smaller one, the actual palaestra, which has been almost entirely uncovered; and a larger, the large gymnasium, of which only a little has been excavated. Both lie close together, west of the sacred grove of Altis, near the banks of the Kladeos; it was, in fact, very common to place the gymnasia near running water, in order to have at hand the water so necessary for the baths. We do not, however, find any trace of those complicated bathing arrangements described by Vitruvius, and probably they did not become common till the Roman period. In the wrestling school of Olympia we can only trace one large bath, but still it is possible that there were more extensive arrangements in the larger gymnasium. The wrestling school itself is a square, the sides of which measure about sixty-four yards each, surrounded with Doric arcades; on the south there is a long hall in the Ionic style; on the three other sides are also halls and little rooms, the purpose of which we cannot determine, connected with the inner court by doors or porticoes; on the north wall is the door connecting it with the south hall of the larger gymnasium. This latter was separated from the wrestling place, though, as a rule, this is an integral part, or even the centre of the whole structure; it is oblong in form, and is surrounded by arcades on two or three sides. The eastern hall extends to the length of 210½ yards. No doubt the exercises in jumping, running, throwing the quoit and spear, took place here. The best-preserved ruins are those of Ephesus and Alexandria Troas, but even here we are obliged to be very arbitrary in our attempts at reconstruction.
In any case it is certain that the gymnasia of the classic period gave sufficient opportunity for different kinds of gymnastic exercises, as well as for wrestling and the various contests, and also supplied places for recreation and comfortable repose from the fatigues of physical exertion. The superintendence of the youths who practised here, and the maintaining of order were the duty of the Gymnasiarchs. They had the right of discipline, which they could exercise on any visitor to the gymnasium, and in token of this they carried a rod; thus we often see on vase pictures, among the gymnasts, men with long sticks, probably meant to represent the gymnasiarchs. In the older period at Athens there was but one gymnasiarch, but afterwards several shared the dignity. We cannot decide how far they also exercised a right of control over the wrestling-schools. Besides the gymnasiarch, or perhaps below him, was a board of officials whose duty it was to see to the preservation of the buildings and of the implements used in the gymnasia, while the general superintendence of the gymnastic exercises, and therefore also of the gymnasia, was exercised by the superintendents mentioned above (page 113), and, as a rule, men somewhat advanced in years were chosen for these posts.
There were other officials who were not so much concerned with the external arrangements of the gymnasia as with the instruction given there. The president of the gymnasium and head of the teachers (κοσμητής) is not mentioned until the late Hellenic and Roman periods; under him were the actual teachers and also those who instructed the ephebi in grammar, rhetoric, and philosophy; but in the classic period no instruction of this kind was given. At that time, however, we find the trainer (γυμναστής) acting as gymnastic teacher to the older youths, whose aim was to prepare themselves for athletic contests, and who intended to enter the lists as professional athletes. As boys were sometimes prepared for such contests, no doubt the trainer sometimes took the place of the ordinary teacher; and again, on the other hand, a competent gymnastic master sometimes undertook the training of athletes. Generally speaking, however, in the older period this distinction was maintained, that the boys’ teacher was concerned chiefly with the general training of the body suitable for everyone, and wrestling on a rational and hygienic basis, while the trainer was a professional teacher, and was more concerned with special subjects than the general harmonious development of the body. Below these teachers stood the rubber (ἀλείπης), whose task was originally a purely mechanical one, but gradually when anointing and rubbing came to be regarded from the hygienic point of view, and were perhaps connected with a kind of massage, his standing improved, and after a time he took a far more important position than belonged to him of right.
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
Fig. 76.