Rudiments of ancient architecture, containing an historical account of the five orders, with their proportions, and examples of each from antiques also, extracts from Vitruvius, Pliny, &c. relative to the buildings of the ancients (London, 1810 (4. Aufl.))

PAL 121

Palestra, or Gymnasium, a Grecian
structure, in its use answering nearly to
the baths of the Romans ; it was more
extensive, as being intended principally
for bodily exercises, and formed a part
of the civil establishment of the Greeks.
The first part, as one may say, consisted
of a large Peristyle ; under the porticos
were spacious exhedrae, with seats,
where the rhetoricians and philosophers
taught and conversed. This peristyle,
whether square or oblong, was always
two stadiae, or a quarter of a mile in
circumference; the fourth portico on
the south side was double, to protect
from tempestuous weather : in the mid-
dle of this portico was the ephedium,
which is a very spacious exhedra with
seats: on each side of which were the
baths, hot and cold, with their apart-
ments. Beyond was another peristyle
of four stadias in circumference ; under
these porticos, called by the Greeks
Xystos, the athletas exercised in the
winter season. The area or middle
space had groves of trees, called Xysta-
cum Silvis. At the farther end was the.