Book 1
5.10
Bodily excellence is health, and of such a kind that when exercising the body we are free from sickness; for many are healthy in the way HerodicusOf Selymbria, physician and teacher of hygienic gymnastics (c. 420 B.C.). He is said to have made his patients walk from Athens to Megara and back, about 70 miles. He was satirized by Plato and by his old pupil Hippocrates as one who killed those for whom he prescribed (cf. 2.23.29). is said to have been, whom no one would consider happy in the matter of health, because they are obliged to abstain from all or nearly all human enjoyments.
5.11
Beauty varies with each age. In a young man, it consists in possessing a body capable of enduring all efforts, either of the racecourse or of bodily strength, while he himself is pleasant to look upon and a sheer delight. This is why the athletes in the pentathlonFive contests: jumping, running, discus-throwing, javelin-throwing, wrestling. are most beautiful, because they are naturally adapted for bodily exertion and for swiftness of foot. In a man who has reached his prime, beauty consists in being naturally adapted for the toils of war, in being pleasant to look upon and at the same time awe-inspiring. In an old man, beauty consists in being naturally adapted to contend with unavoidable labors and in not causing annoyanceOr simply, freedom from pain (5.15). to others, thanks to the absence of the disagreeable accompaniments of old age.
