in Antiquity, persons of strength and agility, disciplined to perform in the public games. The word is originally Greek, ἀθλητής, formed from ἀθλον, certamen, combat; whence also, ἀθλος, the prize or reward adjudged to the victor. Under athlete were comprehended wrestlers, boxers, runners, leapers, throwers of the disk, and those practised in other exercises exhibited in the Olympic, Pythian, and other solemn games. Athletes were first introduced at Rome by M. Fulvius in the year B.C. 186, and enjoyed under the emperors many privileges. Some curious particulars relative to their mode of training are given by several writers, which show that very different ideas were entertained, at different periods, of the diet most suitable for athletes.—See Paus. vi.; Diog. Laert. vi. viii.; Galen, de Val. Tend. iii. Athen. ix. x.