Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Scamma

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Rich, Anthony (1849). The illustrated companion to the Latin dictionary, and Greek lexicon. p. vi. OCLC 894670115. https://archive.org/details/illustratedcompa00rich. 

SCA'MMA (σκάμμα). A Greek word signifying that which is dug, as a trench or ditch; thence a ring in the gymnasium, within which the wrestlers contended, because it was defined by a small trench scraped in the sand, to mark the limits beyond which no competitor was permitted to retreat. (Cael. Aurel. Tard. ii. 1. Polyb. xl. 55.) Amongst the Romans, athletic contests were exhibited in the broad end of the circus; which explains the otherwise unaccountable introduction of two accessories commonly met with in bas-reliefs representing the Circensian games, viz., a hoe (sarculum), and a basket of sand (haphe), the former being used to make the ring, the latter to sprinkle over the bodies of the wrestlers.