Palaestra
（
παλαίστρα). A private trainingschool where boys received
regular instruction in gymnastics and physical culture, and thus differing from gymnasia,
which were public establishments for the training of men (Becker-Göll,
Charikles, ii. 239; Grasberger,
Erziehung und Unterricht, i.
252; and Iwan Müller,
Handbuch, iv. 451 c). The training-master
(
παιδοτρίβης) was paid by the parents of the boys whom he
taught, and he trained all who did not intend either to enter the games in competition or to
become professional athletes. The latter were trained by the
γυμναστής, whose work was of a more special and scientific character. The
exercises practised in the palaestra were running, jumping, wrestling, throwing the discus,
and spear-throwing (i. e. the
pentathlon), and in a mild way boxing and
the
pancration. Boys were also taught to walk properly and to have a
graceful carriage. The Romans did not support the institution of the palaestra to any
great extent (
Quaest. Rom. 40;
Epist. 88, 18; Pliny ,
Epist. x. 40, 2). Among them, as among the later Greeks, the word is often
used of the part of a gymnasium especially devoted to wrestling and often as a synonym for
gymnasium (Vitruv. v. 11). The details of the institution are not known with certainty, but it
may be assumed that they differed from those of the gymnasium only in being milder and less
exacting. See
Athletae;
Gymnasium.
