Note 97 — An Account of a journey from Smyrna to Adrianople, at the end of the year MDCCI, and begining of MDCCII.
Reading edition
By this and the following inscription we find, there were several schools here, where young persons were trained up to athletic exercises in honour of Hercules. For as Lipsius observes, Saturnal. Serm. L. iii. c. 23. Athletis et gladiatoribus Hercules praeesse putabatur, qui facta ejus et robur aemularentur. De athletis lapis Graecus Romae indicat; in quo aliquoties nominati, οἱ περὶ τὸν Ἡρακλέα ἀθληταὶ, id est, Herculanei athletae. So in other inscriptions we have οἱ περὶ τὸν Διόνυσον τεχνῖται, artists employed in the rites of Bacchus.