Caestus
(from
caedo, and not to be confounded with
cestus,
from Greek
κεστός). The thongs or bands of leather which were
tied round the hands of boxers, in order to render their blows more powerful. These bands of
leather were also frequently tied round the arm as high as the elbow, as is shown in the
following statue of a boxer, the original of which is in the Louvre at Paris.
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Statue of a Boxer with the Caestus. (From the Louvre.)
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The caestus was used by boxers from the earliest times. The ordinary boxing-gloves were
called in Greek
ἱμάντες or
ἱμάντες
πυκτικοί. When Epeius and Euryalus in the
Iliad (xxiii. 684)
prepare themselves for boxing, they put on their hands thongs made of ox-hide. (Cf. Theocr.
xxii. 81;
Apoll. Rhod. ii. 53.) But it should be recollected that
the caestus in heroic times appears to have consisted merely of thongs of leather, and
differed materially from the frightful weapons loaded with lead and iron which were used in
later times. The different kinds of caestus were called by the Greeks in later times
μειλίχαι, σπεῖραι βόειαι, σφαῖραι, and
μύρμηκες—of which the
μειλίχαι gave
the softest blows, and the
μύρμηκες the most severe. The
μειλίχαι, which were the most ancient, are described by
Pausanias (viii. 40.3) as made of raw ox-hide cut into thin pieces, and joined in an ancient
manner; they were tied under the hollow or palm of the hand, leaving the fingers uncovered.
The athletae in the palaestrae at Olympia used the
μειλίχαι
only in practising for the public games.
The caestus used in later times in the public games was, as has been already remarked, a
most formidable weapon. It was frequently covered with knots and nails, and loaded with lead
and iron; whence Vergil, in speaking of it, says,
“
Ingentia septem,
Terga boum plumbo insuto ferroque rigebant.
”
Statius also speaks of
nigrantia plumbo tegmina. Such weapons, in the
hands of a trained boxer, must have frequently occasioned death. The
μύρμηκες were, in fact, sometimes called
γυιοτόροι, or “limb-breakers.” Lucilius speaks of a boxer
whose head had been so battered by the
μύρμηκες as to
resemble a sieve. See
Athletae;
Pugil.
Figures with the caestus frequently occur in ancient monuments. They appear to have been of
various forms, as appears by the following specimens, taken from ancient monuments, of which
drawings are given by Fabretti.
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Caestus. (Fabretti.)
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