palaestra

pălaestra, ae, f., = palaistra, a wrestling-school, wrestling-place, place of exercise, palœstra, where youths, with their bodies naked and anointed with oil, practised gymnastic exercises. Such palæstrae were also attached to private houses:

in palaestram venire,

Plaut. Bacch. 3, 3, 20; cf. id. ib. 3, 3, 27:

in palaestrā atque in foro,

id. Am. 4, 1, 3:

statuas in palaestrā ponere,

Cic. Verr. 2, 2, 14, § 36:

pars in gramineis exercent membra palaestris,

Verg. A. 6, 642. —Of the palæstrae in private houses, Varr. R. R. 3, 13:

(Fibrenus) tantum complectitur quod satis sit modicae palaestrae loci,

Cic. Leg. 2, 3, 6; id. Q. Fr. 3, 1, 2.—

II.

Transf.

A.

A wrestling in the palæstra, the exercise of wrestling:

non utuntur in ipsā lusione artificio proprio palaestrae, sed indicat ipse motus, didicerintne palaestram an nesciant,

Cic. de Or. 1, 16, 73:

exercent patrias oleo labente palaestras Nudati socii,

Verg. A. 3, 281:

corpora agresti nudant palaestrae,

id. G. 2, 531:

uncta palaestra,

Ov. H. 19, 11:

nitidā palaestrā ludere,

id. ib. 16, 149; cf. Luc. 4, 615.—Mercury was regarded as the founder of wrestling combats, Hor. C. 1, 10, 4; Luc. 9, 661.—

B.

In the lang. of comedy, a brothel, Plaut. Bacch. 1, 1, 34; Ter. Phorm. 3, 1, 20.—

C.

Exercises in the school of rhetoric, rhetorical exercises, a school of rhetoric, a school:

nitidum genus verborum sed palaestrae magis et olei, quam hujus civilis turbae ac fori,

Cic. de Or. 1, 18, 81:

non tam armis institutus, quam palaestrā,

id. Brut. 9, 37:

sic adjuvet, ut palaestra histrionem,

id. Or. 4, 14; 56, 186; cf. id. ib. 68, 228: Antipater habuit (in scribendā historiā) vires agrestes ille quidem atque horridas sine nitore ac palaestrā, [p. 1291] id. Leg. 1, 2, 6.—

* D.

An art or skill:

utemur eā palaestrā, quam a te didicimus,

Cic. Att. 5, 13, 1.