And Euphorion the Chalcidian, in his Historical Memorials, writes as follows—"But among the Romans it is common for five minæ to be offered to any one who chooses to

[[249]]take it, to allow his head to be cut off with an axe, so that his heirs might receive the reward: and very often many have returned their names as willing, so that there has been a regular contest between them as to who had the best right to be beaten to death."

41. And Hermippus, in the first book of his treatise on Lawgivers, asserts that the Mantineans were the original inventors of men to fight in single combat, and that Demonax, one of their citizens, was the original suggestor of such a course; and that the Cyreneans were the next to follow their example. And Ephorus, in the sixth book of his History, says—"The Mantineans and Arcadians were in the habit of practising warlike exercises; and even to this day they call the military dress and the ancient fashion of arming the Mantinean, as having been invented by that people. And in addition to this, the exercises of single combat were first invented in Mantinea, Demeas being the original author of the invention. And that the custom of single combatants was an ancient one, Aristophanes shows, when he speaks thus in his Phœnissæ—

And on the heroes twain, the sons of Œdipus,
Has savage Mars descended; and they now
Seek the arena dread of single combat.

And the word μονόμαχος appears not to be derived from the noun μάχη, but rather from the verb μάχεσθαι. For as often as a word compounded of μάχη ends in ος, as in the words σύμμαχος, πρωτόμαχος, ἐπίμαχος, ἀντίμαχος, and the φιλόμαχος race of Perseus, spoken of by Pindar, then it is acuted on the antepenultima; but when it has the acute accent on the penultima, then the verb μάχεσθαι comes in; as is shown in the words πυγμάχος, ναυμάχος; in the expression αὐτόν σε πυλαμάχε πρῶτον, in Stesichorus; and the nouns ὁπλομάχος, τειχομάχος, πυργομάχος. But Posidippus the comic writer, in his Pornoboscus, says—

The man who never went to sea has never shipwreck'd been,
But we have been more miserable than μονομαχοῦντες (gladiators in single combat).

And that even men of reputation and captains fought in single combat, and did so in accordance with premeditated challenges, we have already said in other parts of this discussion. And Diyllus the Athenian says, in the ninth book

[[250]]of his Histories, that Cassander, when returning from Bœotia, after he had buried the king and queen at Ægæ, and with them Cynna the mother of Eurydice, and had paid them all the other honours to which they were entitled, celebrated also a show of single combats, and four of the soldiers entered the arena on that occasion.

43. But Demetrius the Scepsian, in the twelfth book of Trojan Array, says, "that at the court of Antiochus the king, who was surnamed the Great, not only did the friends of the king dance in arms at his entertainments, but even the king himself did so. And when the turn to dance came to Hegesianax the Alexandrian from the Troas, who wrote the Histories, he rose up and said—'Do you wish, O king, to see me dance badly, or would you prefer hearing me recite my own poems very well?' Accordingly, being ordered rather to recite his poems, he sang the praises of the king in such a manner, that he was thought worthy of payment, and of being ranked as one of the king's friends for the time to come. But Duris the Samian, in the seventeenth book of his Histories, says that Polysperchon, though a very old man, danced whenever he was drunk,—a man who was inferior to no one of the Macedonians, either as a commander or in respect of his general reputation: but still that he put on a saffron robe and Sicyonian sandals, and kept on dancing a long time." But Agatharchides the Cnidian, in the eighth book of his History of Asia, relates that the friends of Alexander the son of Philip once gave an entertainment to the king, and gilded all the sweetmeats which were to be served up in the second course. And when they wanted to eat any of them, they took off the gold and threw that away with all the rest which was not good to eat, in order that their friends might be spectators of their sumptuousness, and their servants might become masters of the gold. But they forget that, as Duris also relates, Philip the father of Alexander, when he had a golden cup which was fifty drachmas in weight, always took it to bed with him, and always slept with it at his head. And Seleucus says, "that some of the Thracians at their drinking parties play the game of hanging; and fix a round noose to some high place, exactly beneath which they place a stone which is easily turned round when any one stands upon it; and then they cast lots, and he who

[[251]]draws the lot, holding a sickle in his hand, stands upon the stone, and puts his neck into the halter; and then another person comes and raises the stone, and the man who is suspended, when the stone moves from under him, if he is not quick enough in cutting the rope with his sickle, is killed; and the rest laugh, thinking his death good sport."