?hap. 20.] INSTANCES OF EEMAEKABLE AGILITY. 161 



ieized and dragged him to the camp. Vinnius Valens, who 

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

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

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

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

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

 tccount of which may still be seen inscribed on his monument, 

 ^arro, also, gives the following statement: " Eusius, who 

 ised to be called the ' bumpkin 39 Hercules,' was in the habit 

 >f carrying his own mule; while Salvius was able to mount 

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

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

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

 itrength, a man of the name of Athanatus walk across the 

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

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

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

 >erson who could move him from his position ; and when he 

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

 ne of his fingers. 



CHAP. 20. INSTANCES OF REMAKKAHLE AGILITY. 



It was considered a very great thing for Philippidcs to run 

 ne thousand one hundred and sixty stadia, the distance between 

 Uhens and Lacedaemon, in two days, until Amystis, the Lace- 

 Isemonian courier, and Philonides, 40 the courier of Alexander 

 he Great, ran from Sicyon to Elis in one day, a distance of thir- 

 een hundred and five stadia. 41 In our own times, too, we are 



nucli more consistent with probability. " Inermi dextra superatum, et 

 no digito postremo correptum incastra," &c. " Conquered him with the 

 ight hand, and that unarmed, and then with a single finger dragged him 

 o the camp." 



39 "Rusticellus." 



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

 iabit of going from Sicyon to Elis in nine hours. B. 



41 We may consult the learned notes of Ajasson, Lemaire, vol. iii. p. 

 i9, respecting the exact distances here indicated by Pliny. We may re- 

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

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

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

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

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

 tot appear to be absolutely impossible. 



VOL. II. M 



