dides, _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
Lacedaemonians, began the practice of gymnastic exercises, the
wits of the time had it in their power to make sport of those
novelties.... As for the man who laughs at the idea of undressed
women going through gymnastic exercises, as a means of revealing
what is most perfect, his ridicule is but 'unripe fruit plucked
from the tree of wisdom.'" (Plato, _Republic_, Book V.)

According to Plutarch, however, among the Spartans, at all
events, nakedness in women was not ridiculous, since the
institutes of Lycurgus ordained that at solemn feasts and
sacrifices the young women should dance naked and sing, the young
men standing around in a circle to see and hear them. Aristotle
says that in his time Spartan girls only wore a very slight
garment. As described by Pausanias, and as shown by a statue in
the Vatican, the ordinary tunic, which was the sole garment worn
by women when running, left bare the right shoulder and breast,
and only reached to the upper third of the thighs. (M.M. Evans,
_Chapters on Greek Dress_, p. 34.)

Among the Greeks who were inclined to accept the doctrines of
Cynicism, it was held that, while shame is not unreasonable, what
is good may be done and discussed before all men. There are a
number of authorities who say that Crates and Hipparchia
consummated their marriage in the presence of many spectators.
Lactantius (_Inst._ iii, 15) says that the practice was common,
but this Zeller is inclined to doubt. (Zeller, _Socrates and the
Socratic Schools_, translated from the Third German Edition,
1897.)

"Among the Tyrrhenians, who carry their luxury to an
extraordinary pitch, Timaeus, in his first book, relates that the
female servants wait on the men in a state of nudity. And
Theopompus, in the forty-third book of his _History_, states that
it is a law among the Tyrrhenians that all their women should be
in common; and that the women pay the greatest attention to their
persons, and often practice gym