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Hi

Just to elaborate a little on the comments posted here already, cesti (cestus) were not worn during the Pancratium contest(pankratium). But all athletics were contested naked, using just the tools of the sport (so boxers wore gloves, or sometimes a leather support strap, and wrestlers quite often wore a waist belt).

Pancratium, rather than boxing, was considered to be the most dangerous of the three athletic contests (wrestling, boxing, pancratium) and this is reflected in the size of the prize money that was offered to the winners of these contests (around 20% higher for the pancratium, but of course it varied from place to place and in different ancient time periods).

Pancration was essentially no-holds barred by the period of the Roman empire (though it was officially bad form to bite or eye gouge, we have records of at least one professional who was nick named The Lion because he kept his nails long and bit his opponents).

There are mosaic images of pancratists standing in a position which seems to indicate they are trying to get a testicle hold upon their opponents, and one record from Greece tells of an Olympic athlete who was strangled to death by his opponent, yet he still won the match. His own strangle hold was so strong on his opponent that the opponent signalled that he had been defeated - when they seperated the contestants the winner was found to be dead. This was considered to be the ultimate victory, as the athlete had ascended to the Gods at the moment of his win!