caestus

Achilles institutes the funeral games: the chariot-race, the fight of the caestus, the wrestling, the foot-race, the single combat, the discus, the shooting with arrows, the darting the javelin: the various descriptions of which, and the various success of the several antagonists, make the greatest part of the book.

The Iliad of Homer 2003

But even this _letter_, when they transcribed it, writhed and was choked beneath hands which knew better the iron caestus of the gladiator than the subtile and spiritual touch of the artist.

The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 08, No. 45, July, 1861 Various

So it was amid a motley throng of spectators that Castus and Rufus stood up to box together with the _caestus_ that afternoon, and a murmur of admiration rose up from the spectators as the two handsome, graceful young men stepped lightly into the grassy arena.

Border Ghost Stories Howard Pease

The _caestus_ is to be distinguished from _cestus_ (= embroidered, from [Greek: kentein]), an adjective used as a noun in the sense of

Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 4, Part 4 "Bulgaria" to "Calgary" Various

Fell, my other drunken companion (that has been: nam hic caestus artemque repono), is turned editor of a Naval Chronicle.

Selected English Letters Various 1913

And this secret of theirs has never been discovered by the imitators of Lacedaemonian fashions in other cities, who go about with their ears bruised in imitation of them, and have the caestus bound on their arms, and are always in training, and wear short cloaks; for they imagine that these are the practices which have enabled the Lacedaemonians to conquer the other Hellenes.

PROTAGORAS Plato 1889

So _hic caestus_, etc. -- though I am not such a coxcomb as to include _victor_ in the quotation.

A History of the French Novel, Vol. 1 From the Beginning to 1800 George Saintsbury 1889

His activity was as remarkable as his strength, and he was equally formidable with the trident and net as with sword and buckler; while in wrestling and with the caestus none of the others could stand up against him.

Beric the Briton : a Story of the Roman Invasion 1867

Then there is the caestus, but the Romans do not care for that, though, to my mind, it is the finest of all the exercises; for that both strength and activity are required, but it is not bloody enough for the Romans.

Beric the Briton : a Story of the Roman Invasion 1867

In the exercises the men practised with many wrappings of wadding and cotton wound round the caestus, answering the purpose of the modern boxing glove.

Beric the Briton : a Story of the Roman Invasion 1867