s of
Neptune's temple at Troy.

[Illustration: HE ROSE TO HIS FEET JUST AT THE MOMENT THAT SALIUS WAS
COMING UP, AND CONTRIVED TO STAND IN HIS WAY SO AS TO OVERTURN HIM.
EURYALUS, WHO HAD STILL KEPT THE THIRD PLACE, NOW SPRANG FORWARD, AND WAS
EASILY VICTORIOUS AMID THE APPLAUSE OF THE CROWD. ELYMUS CAME IN NEXT, AND
CLOSE BEHIND HIM DIORES. BUT SALIUS LOUDLY DEMANDED THAT THE FIRST PRIZE
OF RIGHT BELONGED TO HIM.]

The next contest was that with the cestus, the boxing-glove of the
ancients, a formidable implement, intended not to soften the blows dealt
by the boxers, but to make them more painful, for it was composed of
strips of hardened oxhide. To the competitors in this sport--if such it
could be called--AEneas offered two prizes,--the first a bullock, decked
with gold and fillets, and the second a sword and a shining helmet. A
noted Trojan warrior named Dares, a man of immense strength and bulk, who
was also celebrated for his skill with the cestus, presented himself to
contest this prize. He brandished his huge fists in the air, and paced
vaingloriously backward and forward in the arena, challenging any one in
the assembly to meet him. But there was no response; his friends were too
well acquainted with his skill, and the Sicilians were awed by his
formidable appearance. At last, therefore, imagining that nobody would
venture to encounter him, he advanced to AEneas and asked that the prize
might be given up to him. It seemed, indeed, that this would have to be
done, when King Acestes turned to one of his elders, a venerable Sicilian
chief named Entellus, and asked how it was that he thus allowed such
splendid prizes to be taken before his eyes without striking a blow for
them. Entellus had, in his younger days, been a great champion with the
cestus, having been taught the use of the weapon by none other than Eryx,
at that time king of Sicily, and one of the most expert boxers in the
world. So confident had Eryx been in his powers, that when the mighty
Hercules passed through Sicily on his way from Spain, where he had slain
King Geryon and carried off his splendid cattle, the Sicilian monarch
ventured to challenge the hero to a combat with the cestus, staking his
kingdom against the cattle which Hercules was bearing away to Greece.
Hercules had accepted the challenge, and had slain Eryx in the encounter;
but the tradition of his skill had been preserved by his pupil Entellus.
The chief was now old, and disinclined