[425] Some gymnasia provided a large “Room of the Epheboi.” So in Vitruvius’ model.
[428] But by the end of the fourth century the teacher of arms becomes an important individual in the training of the epheboi.
[431] Xen. _Econ._ xi. 18; _Banquet_, i. 7, ix. 1.
[434] Brit. Mus. E 83, for a picture of this in use.
[437] _Hunting with Hounds_, passim. So Plato in the _Laws_, with reservations.
[445] Lakonian and Attic (Herod. vi. 129); Persian (Xen. _Anab._ vi. 1. 10); Troizenìan Epizephurian Lokrian, Cretan, Ionian, Mantinean in Lucian, _On Dancing_, 22.
[446] Not necessarily nude, for γυμνός [gymnos] only represents the absence of the armour used in the War-dance.
[450] The dance known as γυμνοπαιδική [gymnopaidikê] is described in Athen. 631 b, as including representations of wrestling. In 678 b, c, the festival of the Γυμνοπαιδίαι [Gymnopaidiai], and the dances in it are referred to, but no mention is there made of wrestling.
[452] This sketch is drawn chiefly from Antiphon, _The Choreutes_.
[454] Rivals sometimes tried to interrupt the lessons or bribe the teacher (Demos. _Mid._ 535).
[455] The situation of Antiphon’s speech.
[463] Mnesimachos, _Hippotrophos_ (Athen. 402 f).
[464] See Illustr. Plates X. A, X. B and the Frontispiece for scenes in a riding-school.
[465] The mark was a suspended shield, Brit. Mus. Prize-Amphora 7, Room IV.
[466] A rough summary of Xen. _Hipparch._ i. 15-26.
[475] Plato, _Rep._ 529 C; _Phaidr._ 264 A.
[478] Galen, _de loc. aff._ iv. 8. See Grasberger, i. 151.
[483] Aristoph. _Frogs_, 200-271, describes a rowing lesson.
[490] So lampadi γυμνασιαρχεῖν λαμπάδι [gymnasiarchein].――Isaios, _Philoktemon_, 62. 60. γυμνασιαρχεῖσθαι εὐ ταῖς λαμπάσιν [gymnasiarcheisthai eu tais lampasin].――Xen. _Revenues_, 4. 52. λάμπάδι νικήσας γυμνασιαρχῶν [lampadi nikêsas gymnasiarchôn].――Böckh, 257.
[491] Dem. _ag. Lakritos_, 940; Aristot. Ἀθ. Πολ. [Ath. Pol.] 57.
[494] Isaios, _Menekles_, § 42. See Wyse’s edition on the passage.
At fourteen or soon after, it was usual for the ordinary course of letters and lyre-playing to terminate: the gymnastic lessons might be carried on till old age interrupted them. During the first three-quarters of the fifth century, the lad, on leaving school, was left to live more or less as he pleased, if he was rich enough not to have to work for his living: the sons of poorer citizens at this age, if not before, settled down to learn a trade or engaged in merchandise. Rich boys, no doubt, spent most of their time in athletic pursuits; riding and chariot-driving were favourite amusements. But with the Periclean age arose a violent desire for a further course of intellectual study, and a system of secondary education arose, to occupy the four years which elapsed between the time when the lad finished his primary education and the time when the State summoned him to undergo his two years of military training.