Chap. IV. A N T I E N T M K T A P H Y S 1 C S. 115 



io well defcribed *, were an excellent preparation for war, and made 

 them as good foldiers as hufbandmen. But, after they began to live 

 more in the town, and wealth and luxury were introduced amono- 

 them, then, as the fame Varro tells us t, they built gymnafmms 

 in imitation of the Greeks, and became like them /earned athlets ; 

 fo as to vie with the Greeks in thofe exercifes, and even to excel 

 them, if we may believe Horace ; for he fays, 



luciamiir Achivis doctius tinSlis. 



Lib. ii. Epiji. i. 



So much, at leaft, we are fure of, from feveral pafTages in Horace, 

 that to excel in exercifes was very fafhionable among the Romans, 

 even in the luxurious age of Auguftus Caefar, when they were pof- 

 fefTed of the wealth of all the world J. But, among the Greeks, 

 long before the days of Auguftus Caefar, exercife had been an art or 



P 2 fcience, 



* Defcribing the way the farmer pafTed his holydays, he fays, 



Ipfe dies agitat feflos ; fufufque per herbam, 

 Ignis ubi in medio, et focii cratera coronant, 

 Te libans, Lenaee, vocat : Pecorifque magiftris 

 Velocis'jaculi certamina ponit in ulmo ; 

 Corporaque agrefti nudat praedura palaeftra. 

 Hanc olim veteres vitam coluere Sabini ; 

 Hanc Remus et frater : Sic fortis Etruria crevit; 

 Scilicet et rerum fadla eft pulcherrima Roma. 



Georg. ii. Verf. 527. 



t Lib. de Antiquls Nominibus. 



± Lib. I. Ode 8. — Lib. 3. Ode 7.— Lib. 2. Satyr, i. in initio.— Lib. i. Epift. 18. 



