BOXING, the exercise of fighting with the fists, either naked, or with a stone or leaden ball grasped in them. In this sense, boxing coincides with the πυγίλον of the Greeks, the pugillatus of the Romans, and what on our amphitheatres is sometimes called the trial of manhood. When the champions had σπερμα, or balls, either of lead or stone, it was properly denominated σπερμαχία. The ancient boxing differed from the pugna caestuum, in which the combatants had leathern thongs on their hands, and balls, to offend their antagonists; though this distinction is frequently overlooked, and fighting with the caestus reckoned a part of the business of pugiles: in which view we may discover three species of boxing; the first, where both the hands and the head are absolutely naked, as is practised among us; the second, where the hands were armed with σπερμα, but the head naked; and the third, where the head was armed with a kind of cap or cover called amphoterides, chiefly to defend the ears and temples, the hands being also armed with caestuses. Boxing is an ancient exercise, having been in use in the heroic times before the invention of iron or other weapons. Those who prepared themselves for it, used all the means that could be contrived to render themselves fat and fleshy, that they might be better able to endure blows; whence corpulent men or women were usually called pugiles. Mr Burette † has given the history of the ancient pugilates, or boxing, with great exactness.