[654]. Suet. Vesp. c. 20. with the note of Torrentius, p. 375.
[655]. In the Gymnasium of Asclepios at Smyrna, Heracleides the sophist erected an anointing-room, containing a fountain or well of oil, and adorned with a gilded roof.—Philostr. de Vit. Sophist. ii. 26. p. 613.
[656]. Vitruv. v. 11. Cf. on the Xystoi, Xenoph. Œconom. xi. 15.—Cicero, Acad. iv. 3; ad Att. l. 8. Of this covered walk Aristeas makes mention in a fragment of his Orpheus:—
Ἦν μοὶ παλαίστρα καὶ δρόμος
ξυστὸς πέλας.
Poll. ix. 43.
[657]. Potter, Book i. chap. 8.
[658]. Lucian, Amor. § 45. seq.
[659]. Lucian, Anach. § § 1–3. 28.
[660]. Accumenes, the friend of Socrates, advised persons to walk on the high-road in preference to the places of exercise, as being less fatiguing and more beneficial.—Plat. Phæd. t. i. p. 3. On the rapidity of public runners see Herod. vi. 106. Cf. on the Pentathlon West, Dissert. on the Olympic Games, p. 77. They appear to have acquired so equable and steady a pace that time was measured by their movements, as distance is by that of caravans in the East. Thus Dioscorides, ii. 96. gives direction that gall should be boiled while a person could run three stadia.