And grappling close they tumbled side by side,
Defiled with honourable dust they roll,
Still breathing strife and unsubdued of soul.”
Boxing, which has very properly been called a rough exercise, though condemned by physicians and philosophers, was still practised in the gymnasium, sometimes with the naked fist but more frequently with the cestus, which consisted of a series of thongs, bound round the hand and arm up to the elbow, or even higher.[[673]] This exercise, however, seems to have been little practised, except by those who designed to become athletæ by profession. Homer has described the combat with the cestus in its most terrible form.[[674]]
“Amid the circle now each champion stands,
And poises high in air his iron hands:
With clashing gauntlets now they firmly close,
Their crackling jaws re-echo to the blows,
And painful sweat from all their members flows.
At length Epeus dealt a weighty blow