Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Coliphium

Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary, and Greek Lexicon (Rich, 1849)

COLIPH'IUM. A sort of food upon which wrestlers and persons in training for athletic exercises were dieted, in order to increase their muscular development, without adding superfluous flesh, upon the same principle as still pursued by our prize-fighters, &c. What the Roman coliphia were is not distinctly known; but they are generally supposed to have been a kind of bread cake, without leaven, and mixed with new cheese. Plaut. Pers. i. 3. 12. Juv. ii. 53. Schol. Vet. ad l. Mart. vii. 67. 12.