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A Cabinet of Byzantine Curiosities: Strange Tales and Surprising Facts from History's Most Orthodox Empire
"In his Treatise on What Sort of Person a King Should Be, the philosopher Nikephoros Blemmydes (thirteenth century) questioned the usefulness of games used in military training, such as skillful moves in polo matches. Trainers apparently believed that this made soldiers more dexterous, and he refers to an exercise in which they had to jump around on one leg standing on an inflated sack, trying to balance on it (in PG 642: 173)."