pălaestra — Lewis & Short
pălaestra, ae, f., = palai/stra,
I a wrestling-school, wrestling-place, place of exercise, palœstra, where youths, with their bodies naked and anointed with oil, practised gymnastic exercises. Such palæstrae were also attached to private houses:
in palaestram venire,Plaut. Bacch. 3, 3, 20; cf. id. ib. 3, 3, 27:
in palaestrā atque in foro,id. Am. 4, 1, 3:
statuas in palaestrā ponere,Cic. Verr. 2, 2, 14, § 36:
pars in gramineis exercent membra palaestris,Verg. A. 6, 642. —Of the palæstrae in private houses, Varr. R. R. 3, 13:
(Fibrenus) tantum complectitur quod satis sit modicae palaestrae loci,Cic. Leg. 2, 3, 6; id. Q. Fr. 3, 1, 2.—
II Transf.
A A wrestling in the palæstra, the exercise of wrestling:
non utuntur in ipsā lusione artificio proprio palaestrae, sed indicat ipse motus, didicerintne palaestram an nesciant,Cic. de Or. 1, 16, 73:
exercent patrias oleo labente palaestras Nudati socii,Verg. A. 3, 281:
corpora agresti nudant palaestrae,id. G. 2, 531:
uncta palaestra,Ov. H. 19, 11:
nitidā palaestrā ludere,id. ib. 16, 149; cf. Luc. 4, 615.—Mercury was regarded as the founder of wrestling combats, Hor. C. 1, 10, 4; Luc. 9, 661.—
B In the lang. of comedy, a brothel, Plaut. Bacch. 1, 1, 34; Ter. Phorm. 3, 1, 20.—
C Exercises in the school of rhetoric, rhetorical exercises, a school of rhetoric, a school:
nitidum genus verborum sed palaestrae magis et olei, quam hujus civilis turbae ac fori,Cic. de Or. 1, 18, 81:
non tam armis institutus, quam palaestrā,id. Brut. 9, 37:
sic adjuvet, ut palaestra histrionem,id. Or. 4, 14; 56, 186; cf. id. ib. 68, 228: Antipater habuit (in scribendā historiā) vires agrestes ille quidem atque horridas sine nitore ac palaestrā, id. Leg. 1, 2, 6.—*
D An art or skill:
utemur eā palaestrā, quam a te didicimus,Cic. Att. 5, 13, 1.