Chap. 20.] IXSTAXCES OF EEMAEKABLE AGILITY. IGl 



seized and dragged him to the camp. Vinnius Yalens, who 

 served as a centurion in the praetorian guard of Augustus, was 

 in the habit of holding up waggons laden with casks, until 

 they were emptied ; and of stopping a carriage with one hand, 

 and holding it back, against all the efforts of the horses to 

 drag it forward. He performed other wonderful feats also, an 

 account of which may still be seen inscribed on his monument. 

 Varro, also, gives the following statement : " Fusius, who 

 used to be called the ' bumpkin ^^ Hercules,' was in the habit 

 of carrying his own mule; while Salvius was able to mount 

 a ladder, with a weight of two hundred pounds attached to his 

 feet, the same to his hands, and two hundred pounds on each 

 shoulder." I myself once saw, — a most marvellous display of 

 strength, — a man of the name of Athanatus walk across the 

 stage, wearing a leaden breast-plate of five hundred pounds 

 weight, while shod with buskins of the same weight. When 

 Milo, the wrestler, had once taken his stand, there was not a 

 person who could move him from his position ; and when he 

 grasped an apple in his hand, no one could so much as open 

 one of his fingers. 



CHAP. 20. INSTANCES OF EEMAEKABLE AGILITY. 



It was considered a very great thing for Philippides to run 

 one thousand one hundred and sixty stadia, the distance between 

 Athens and Lacedsemon, in two days, until Amystis, the Lace- 

 daemonian courier, and Philonides,^*' the courier of Alexander 

 the Great, ran from Sicyon to Elis in one day, a distance of thii*- 

 teen hundred and five stadia.*^ In our own times, too, we are 



much more consistent with probability. " Inermi destra supcratura, et 

 uno digito postvemo correptura incastra," <S:c. — " Conquered him ^vith the 

 right band, and that unarmed, and then with a single linger dragged him 

 to the camp." 



3& "Rusticellus." 



*" Philonides has been already mentioned, B. ii. c. 73, as being in the 

 habit of going from Sicyon to Elis in nine hours. — B. 



*' "We may consult the learned notes of Ajasson, Lemaire, vol. iii. p. 

 99, respecting the exact distances here indicated by Pliny. We may re- 

 mark, that a stadium is about one-eighth of a mile, according to which esti- 

 mate, Philippides must have gone 142 miles in two days, and the other 150 

 miles in one day ; as it is implied, that these journeys were performed on 

 foot, even the former of them is obviously impossible. — B. Query, how- 

 ever, as to this last assertion ; according to recent pedestrian feats, it does 

 not appear to be absolutely impossible. 



VOL. II. 31 



