to cover the foreskin with the _kynodesme_ (a band), or the
_fibula_ (a ring), for custom and modesty demanded that the glans
should be concealed. Such covering is represented in persons who
were compelled to be naked, and is referred to by Celsus as
"decori causâ." (L. Stieda, "Anatomisch-archäologische Studien,"
_Anatomische Hefte_, Bd. XIX, Heft 2, 1902.)

"Among the Lydians, and, indeed, among the barbarians generally,
it is considered a deep disgrace, even for a man, to be seen
naked." (Herodotus, Book I, Chapter X.)

"The simple dress which is now common was first worn in Sparta,
and there, more than anywhere else, the life of the rich was
assimilated to that of the people. The Lacedæmonians, too, were
the first who, in their athletic exercises, stripped naked and
rubbed themselves over with oil. This was not the ancient custom;
athletes formerly, even when they were contending at Olympia,
wore girdles about their loins [earlier still, the Mycenæans had
always worn a loin-cloth], a practice which lasted until quite
lately, and still persists among barbarians, especially those of
Asia, where the combatants at boxing and wrestling matches wear
girdles." (Thucydides, _History_, Book I, Chapter VI.)

"The notion of the women exercising naked in the schools with the
men ... at the present day would appear truly ridiculous.... Not
long since it was thought discreditable and ridiculous among the
Greeks, as it is now among most barbarous nations, for men to be
seen naked. And when the Cretans first, and after them the
Lacedæmonians, began the practice of gymnastic exercises, the
wits of the time had it in their power to make sport of those