called pugilatus by the Romans, the exercise of fighting with the fists, either naked or with a stone or leaden ball grasped in them. In the pugna cestuum the combatants had leathern thongs on their hands, which in later times were loaded with lead or iron, to add greater force to the blows. Three species of boxing may be distinguished, namely, where both the head and hands were naked; where the hands were armed and the head naked; and where the ears were defended with a kind of covers, called amphitides, and the hands also furnished with the cestus.

The ancient pugilists battled with extraordinary fury, and frequently received such disfigurements that they could not be recognised by their acquaintances. They were thus rendered the subject of many railleries, of which some humorous specimens are to be found in the Greek Anthology.

Boxing was practised in the heroic ages; and hence even gods, as well as several of the earliest heroes, are represented as distinguished pugilists; as, for example, Apollo, Hercules, Tydeus, &c. The invention of the art, says the scholiast on Pindar (Nem. v. 89) was ascribed to Theseus.

Boxing the Compass, denotes the rehearsing the points in their proper order.