PALÆSTRA (παλαῖστρα, from παλῆ, wrestling), signifies properly a wrestling-school, but seems to have been used among the Greeks as sometimes synonymous with gymnasium, generally as forming a part of the gymnasium (Herod. vi. 126, 128), and occasionally as distinct from it. The Romans used the terms as synonyms. (Vitruv. v. 11.) (See GYMNASIUM.)