INOPOLITAN HISTORY.

PALÆPAPHOS, a town of Cyprus, where once stood a temple of Venus; and an adjoining town called Neo Pa- phas, where St Paul struck Elymas blind, and converted the proconsul Sergius Paulus.

PALÆSTRA, in Grecian antiquity, a public building where the youth exercised themselves in wrestling, run- ning, playing at coits, and other feats of strength and skill. To prevent the combatants from hurting themselves by falling, the bottom of the palestra was covered with dust or gravel. Some think that the palestra was only a part of the gymnasium. Many authors also imagine that the palestra was of two kinds, the one for the exercise of the body, the other for the cultivation of the mind; but the derivation of the word seems to confine it exclusively to bodily exercise.